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THE WORLD'S 



GREATEST CONFLICT 



REVIEW OP"' FRANCE AND AMERICA 
1788 TO 1800 

AND HISTORY OF AMERICA AND EUROPE 
1800 TO 1804 



f) 



BY / 

- y 

HENRY 'bOYNTON 




BOSTON 
D LOTHROP COMPANY 

WASHINGTON STREET OPPOSITE BROMFIELD 



\ 



■Q •■> a 



Copyright, 1890, 

BY 

D. LoTHROP Company. 



PREFACE. 

The world's greatest conflict is the struggle for and 
against good government. Our Revolution established 
independence, but it did not settle our government; 
that grand work was later. We had one State (Vermont) 
outside the Union, and thirteen commonwealths but 
loosely connected. They were not firmly united. 

Popular rule of a great combination of States with 
varying interests and habits was not yet accomplished. 
To do it properly demanded an invention — a new mech- 
anism. The American system in which a clearly ex- 
pressed Constitution, interpreted by an independent 
judiciary, defines, limits and overrules all executive 
power and all legislation, prevents aggression by or 
against the Government, and guarantees the rights of 
every person, however humble, is the greatest of all in- 
ventions; the grandest achievement of human intellect. 

Republics had already existed ; they are of ancient 
origin — even steam and steam machinery existed before 
James Watt. But those old republics compare with 
the modern system now used in both Americas, Great 
Britain, France, Australia and Switzerland, as does the 
rude steamboat of Blasco de Garey of blessed memory 
with that great Inman steamer, the City of New York. 

Our best statesmen were then students of statesman- 
ship — seekers for a system to secure individual liberty 
and equality and the certainty of legal remedies, and yet 
to restrain license, protect person and property, to 

3 



IV PREFACE. 

surely punish crime, and to debar any part of the people 
from invading the rights of any other part. It was 
not perfect — it has been several times amended. 

Lack of precedent rendered American government 
in the times of Washington, Adams and Jefferson, 
more crude and much more difficult than to-day, when 
laws, practices and expectations of State legislatures 
and courts are better affiliated. 

Our form of government and those of Great Britain 
and France are not due to any one man, but are the 
work of self-made nations who are willing to make 
the mutual concessions always necessary to any good 
government. The vital principle of success is consent 
to peacefully abide the decisions of the majority — a 
failure to obey which barred from success the first 
French Revolution. 

Great Britain has now a free popular government so 
far as its House of Commons, and that House controls 
the Ministry. Members are elected by manhood suf- 
frage in a form of balloting better guarded against 
fraud than in most States and countries. But prior to 
the first " Reform Act " of 1832, only a few persons 
chose the members ; few men were voters. 

Great Britain has a constitution, though it is still not 
one compact document; but its Magna Charta and its 
many acts of Parliament and long ages of judicial 
decisions. Since 1789 Great Britain has made more 
real progress than in many previous centuries ; it is 
one of the most progressive of nations. 

France, Italy, the two Americas, the British colonies, 
the educational system of Germany, and the Swiss can- 
tons have immensely advanced. 



PREFACE. V 

The whole civilized world is more humane, more en- 
lightened ; there exists in people and in governments 
far less of hatred, of malignancy ; the standards of public 
and private honor are higher than a hundred years 
ago. The world is vastly indebted to men and w^omen 
who have labored to make our race better and happier. 
Retrospect shows that they have accomplished great 
good in the improvement of manners, morals, intelli- 
gence, charity, in the betterment of public institutions 
and of private habits. The world grows better. The 
peoples are learning that the more they uphold, aid 
and comfort the intelligent teachers of religion, honor, 
honesty and kindness, the less are they likely to need 
force ; the more Sunday-schools and day schools, the 
less policemen ; and it follows that the more inter- 
national courtesy, the less liability to w^ar. The more 
obedience to the fifth chapter of Matthew, the less 
need of armies ; the more they secure fraternal, gener- 
ous and humane habits and principles, the more they 
honor God and their country. 

No nation should be judged to-day by what it was 
two generations ago. It is an age of progress, not 
equal in all nations, for some, notably in the increase 
of standing armies, have retrograded. 

If we wish to learn the real lessons that history 
teaches we must lay aside our own bias — all our pre- 
conceived ideas — and examine history in the same im- 
partial spirit with which a good juryman tries a cause 
in court by " law and evidence " ; we must make our 
verdicts by the holy law of good conscience and facts, 
"without fear or favor," even though it condemn our 
historical idols. 



VI PREFACE. 

Much that has passed as history or material for his- 
tory is badly defective because distorted from fact by 
the vindictive party feelings, in fashion to a much 
later period. False sentiments, party hates, a dis- 
position to have and to worship an idol, a blind fol- 
lowing of mistaken leaders, have too often usurped 
the place of honest, manly conscience in judging of the 
characters of men and measures of history, especially 
of that so recent that men are still living who heard 
the thunder of all Europe's cannon as it closed around 
France, or have been active partisans of men then 
living. The statements of facts that bear hardest 
upon leading characters in this book, and in one 
that must follow it, are proven by documents found 
among their own papers, and by testimony of their own 
friends and intimate contemporaries, and confirmed by 
other ample evidence. For one to palliate or excuse 
a public crime or wrongful measure because of the 
eminence or leadership of the perpetrator, would be 
to wrong one's own conscience and to aid in demoraliza- 
tion of public opinion. 

H. B. 



The World's Greatest Conflict. 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

THE American and English Revolutions were 
made to defend rights, the French to obtain 
them. Religion favored the former, but injured 
the latter. The immorality of the higher French 
clergy, who were all nobles, in contrast with the 
morality of the common priests, disgusted the 
people and excited them toward revolt. 

American and British parliaments rank above 
the executive power; the French parliaments 
were almost powerless ; the king alone was power. 
" I am the State ! " said the imperious Louis. 

In proportion to the degree of misrule are, 
usually, the excesses of revolt. French kingly 
misrule was terrible ; revolt was therefore terrible. 

Insurgents who have nothing to lose, destroy 
property ; men to whom life is of little value, 
commit bloodshed freely. The kings and nobles 
made the people poor, and by rendering their lives 
of little value to themselves, qualified them for 
bloody and destructive revolt. 

9 



10 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

England presents a striking contrast ; in revolu- 
tion since 1832, its great change has, nevertheless, 
been peaceful and beneficent, because the people 
had the means to progress peacefully. In 1774 
this means was denied to France. All the people, 
even the nobility, were out of power. Then only 
Great Britain, Switzerland and Holland had limited 
rulers. All else was absolute monarchy. France 
in many provinces was under diverse laws and 
customs ; some had little parliaments, others had 
none. The king's "Intendents" ruled over many 
sections and extorted all possible taxes, legal and 
illegal. 

Every person was either a noble or a plebeian ; 
no middle class existed ; of twenty-five millions 
of French, one hundred and fifty thousand nobles 
held all the valuable places in church, state and 
army. The only taxes they paid were a five per 
cent, on crops ; all other taxes and tithes were 
extorted from plebeians. Offices, honors, titles 
and tolls, the king sold or donated to favorites. 

It is an error of writers to claim that the work- 
ingmen of France read Rousseau and Voltaire ; 
most of them could not read at all ; they toiled 
and starved ; absentee landlords spent the rents 
in Paris and drained the farm country of cash. 

In 1788-89 skilled mechanics earned twenty-six 
sous a day, women twenty sous ; bread was three 
sous a pound.* 

* Bouteau, Laverne, von Sybel. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 1 1 



II. 



IT was a fine May morning in the year 1774. 
Everybody was glad. Louis the Fifteenth 
was dead. He had been a bad king. 

Not a mourner followed to the tomb L'roi 

at St. Denis. Paris, long angry, long estmort:- 
repressed, threw up its eight hundred " abasi'roi. 
thousand hats, caps and bonnets, 
hugged itself, sang merrily, danced, and jeered 
that lonely royal funeral that galloped through 
the streets. 

The fifteenth Louis had lived sixty-four years ; 
he had been king fifty-nine years, and had led a 
gay and wicked life. France suffered frightfully 
from this bad king's badness. 

His death was the best act of his life. It gave 
Parisians the merriest day they had seen for 
years. 

Louis the Fifteenth had boasted of being the 
best cook in France. Far better for the French 
had he been born only a cook ; he was worthless 
for anything else. 

It was on May 10, 1774, that Louis was so 
gracious as to die. On May 10, 1770, just four 
years before, there had been solemnized a famous 
wedding. 

The bridegroom was a big, ill-mannered, abrupt, 



12 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 

awkward, ill-humored * and decidedly dull boy of 
less than sixteen years. 

Boys are usually bright and can talk ; but this 
boy bridegroom had both poverty of mind and of 
speech. He was also very timid and very lazy. 
He had a coarse way of moving and of walking ; 
he lacked both grace and graciousness. Poor de- 
ficient boy ! Nature had made him unfitted for a 
career ; and Fate had caused him to be born to be 
a king. It was deplorable. 

The young bride was unwisely selected for a 
French queen. Her Austrian birth invited French 
criticism and she was but a romping, ignorant f 
girl of fourteen and a half years. 

This boy and girl were not in love ; they were 
not attracted to each other ; each was averse to 
the other. Their nations, characters, tastes, habits 
— everything were different and opposite. 

When the exit of the bad old Louis the Fifteenth 
had caused this spontaneous popular festival, and 
every one was feeling happy, this unloving and 
not very lovely wedded pair made their debut on 
the great political stage of France as King Louis 
the Sixteenth and Queen Marie Antoinette. 

Whenever you have on your hands a very vicious 
elephant, and luck suddenly exchanges him for a 
worthless donkey, what do you do ? Why, you re- 
joice greatly ; you are exceeding glad for the loss 
of that big, bad brute. You hurrah without wait- 

* Martin, Vol. II. p. 280. ~ t Thiers, Vol. I. p. 227. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 1 3 

ing to learn that your new donkey is very stupid, 
very awkward, very lazy, very much worse than use- 
less ; that really as a nuisance his merit is second 
only to that of the now discarded vicious elephant. 

Such was the French situation. 

Each order stood alone ; nobles, clergy, and 
" third estate " each had interests adverse to the 
other two, each was divided against itself. The 
nobles were luxurious and licentious ; the higher 
clergy, some of whom disbelieved, lived in rich 
excess, while the honest common priests in pov- 
erty soothed the sick and the mourning, and 
married, baptized, and buried the poor. 

The king and his favorites imprisoned, exiled, 
confiscated at will. Innocence was not safe, prop- 
erty was not safe, life was not safe ; Louis was apt 
to break over his own laws, to oppress his people. 

The great nobles were courtiers, hated by coun- 
try gentlemen, and abhorred by France ; they 
bought, sold or held offices in the church, the 
state, the army and navy ; they drew unearned 
pensions and many royal gifts of cash wrung from 
working people. Even the seats in the Paris par- 
liament were sold for life by the king. 

The king made laws ; parliament merely '* regis- 
tered " them. If it refused to register the king 
could come in person and compel registry. 

In 1800 it was the fashion for sovereigns to be 
half-witted or insane. But in 1774, it was quite 



14 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

otherwise, when Catherine the Second of Russia, 
Frederic the Second of Prussia, Maria Theresa 
of Austria, Joseph the Second of Germany, and 
Charles the Third of Spain were ruling. 

Louis the Sixteenth was himself ill-tempered, 
selfish, ]azy ; his wife was of ill-mannered igno- 
rance, and made scandal by frolicking with doubt- 
ful characters in Versailles woods ; both of them 
were of very narrow minds and should early have 
perceived that they were never made to reign. 
Marie Antoinette could not endure Louis' dull- 
ness, and he, when but sixteen, preferred an anvil 
and hammer to the society of his young wife. 
Not till years after marriage did any love exist 
between them. 

Americans have too generously credited Louis 
with friendly aid to America. This credit is due 
to France, but not to Louis. Louis opposed it ; 
he only yielded when French public opinion co- 
erced him into war with England. Britain was the 
hereditary enemy of France ; she had, by the 
war which ended in 1763, despoiled France of 
Canada, Cape Breton, and most of the French 
Indies. 

Louis was a champion blunderer. His first and 
greatest blunder was in being born at all, his sec- 
ond in being born to be a king, his third in accept- 
ing from Austria a wife when Austria had just 
humiliated France in a long war. That wife had 
a singular genius for displeasing the French. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. I 5 

In examining the strange and now famous career 
of this fateful and untalented pair, we wonder that 
Louis did not omit so unfit a marriage, perceive 
his own very marked worthlessness, resign the 
crown, marry some suitable very dull damsel, and 
live a dull life as became his stupid disposition. 
Even foolish Charles the Fourth of Spain was 
wise enough to abdicate (1808), and live in private 
and happy luxury ; even fool Philip of Spain {1788) 
had the good taste to be an outright idiot, and as 
such was set aside to spend his life in hunting just 
as Louis wanted to hunt. Louis ought to have 
been as wise as these two champion fools. 

We do not wish to be -deceived : let us look at 
the real Louis the Sixteenth uncolored by fancy. 
Let us try this case by the evidence, and by the 
laws of common justice and fairness, applying the 
same rules of right and wrong to king and com- 
moner. If the results differ from that derived from 
former historical reading let us blame only the 
facts ; let us quarrel with the acts and the persons 
who made them, not with the conclusion. 

Profligacy had run riot ; morality was deranged ; 
royal mistresses had ruled France. So disgusted 
with wicked Louis the Fifteenth were the French 
that they hailed with delight the accession of 
stupid Louis the Sixteenth, even with Marie An- 
toinette ** the Austrian." 

God made Louis the Sixteenth for a small tinker, 



1 6 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

a mender of pots and pans ; heredity defied God's 
design and made him a king. He was one of 
those good-for-nothings, such as every one has 
seen, presuming without dignity, assuming with- 
out ability, undecided except when it is folly to 
decide, and then foolishly tenacious. Praised for 
good intentions, his career does not sustain it. 
Nature denied him capacity to be a great roue 
like his grandfather Louis the Fifteenth, or his 
grandfather's great-grandfather Louis the Four- 
teenth. 

His queen, badly brought up, was impolite 
among the polite French ; she was tactless and 
frivolous; she was neither dignified nor elegant; 
she indulged caprice and levity ; her habits hardly 
left her reputation free from scandal,* 

Her mother, the Austrian Empress, Maria 
Theresa, severely chided her for light habits. f 

Louis allowed his two brothers to keep very 
costly households at the nation's expense. His 
tax system was so wasteful that when France 
paid forty-one million livres, only twenty-three 
millions reached the king. Tax gatherers got the 
rest. 

Louis called the old courtier, Maurepas, for 
advice. That cunning man assumed to be prime 
minister. "Not that," replied Louis. "Then I 
will show you how to be king without a minister," 
responded the old fraud, and he kept the chief 

* Martin. t Maria Theresa, Letters. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 7 

place till his death in 178 1. He was a witty, 
charming, trivial old humbug. 

With Maurepas came Madame, his wife. That 
good creature knew more than her husband. She 
had a heart. Her memory should be cherished. 
She chose for Controller of Finance the great lib- 
eral statesman, Turgot. 

Her husband and the king opened wide their 
eyes in surprise. Should a king choose Turgot the 
half republican for a royal minister .-* 

It was of no use to object. The good Madame 
said it ; she put down her small foot ; she ruled 
her husband. She required him to require the 
king to do it. It was done; enter Turgot, 1774. 

A woman knows much about spending money. 
She knows much, too, of saving it. The best 
investment a man can make is a good woman. 
Madame Maurepas was worth to France one thou- 
sand times her weight in gold coin ; one hundred 
thousand times her weight in husbands like hers. 
Had she been sovereign of France, and Louis a 
tinsmith, then would the tremendous explosion of 
France, that shook the world, have omitted itself. 
Justice and honor would have ruled. 

Madame required M. Turgot to do the unheard- 
of justice in France of allowing any one who 
desired to make goods to freely make them, and 
any one who had anything to sell to sell it. This 
seems very simple. But the most profound states- 
manship of France had not reached it. The 



l8 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

privilege to make, to haul, to buy, to sell, were all 
owned as monopoly. The right to carry a load of 
wheat to market, the right to cross a river, the 
right to make even a plow was owned. If you 
were poor and a peasant, you must pay for your 
"privileges." You must pay, to those to whom 
kings have given these rights, their own prices to 
use their mill to grind your corn, to press your 
grapes, to use their oven to bake your bread. And 
you must pay taxes till for very hunger you and 
your loved ones wish yourselves dead. 

Turgot's policy was : no bankruptcy ; no in- 
crease of taxes ; no loans ; no royal gifts of the 
nation's money ; reduction of royal expenses ; 
economy ; reform. Louis promised it all. Prom- 
ising was his forte. He was a bad performer. 

Turgot wanted to remove odious taxes and have 
but one single, equal tax laid alike on all. He 
wanted free manufacture, free commerce, and no 
crippling of labor. 

France was astonished. France was suspicious 
of Turgot. What a policy ! France held up its 
hands. Allow a man to raise wheat and sell it 
without paying the king for the privilege ! Allow 
a woman to make butter or linen and not pay the 
lord of the manor for that right ! Bar the 
king from taking your money and giving it to 
Monsieur the prince or Madame the courtesan ! 
Stop the starving of millions of peasants ! Stop 
the king from giving as Louis the Fifteenth in 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. I9 

five years gave to the fair but frail du Barry one 
hundred and eighty million livres. The nobles 
opposed such reform. 

Each man waited the king's orders. Law regu- 
lated nothing ; no one originated ; lack of system 
or of justice stifled public spirit ; neither nobles 
nor people were expected to keep order ; that was 
the king's business ; * each sought his own escape 
from tax. 

Large owners held two thirds of all the land ; 
small owners one third, but wild game for the 
nobles' benefit must go at large, though they de- 
stroyed the crop on which depended the peasant's 
bread. Severe edicts forbade hoeing and weeding 
lest the brooding partridges be disturbed. The 
nobles and king owned all the game. Tenants 
must pay toll for bruising buckwheat between 
stones. 

By corvee they were forced to build roads with- 
out pay, but they must pay when they used these 
same roads. Land was subdivided till what was 
needed for one was used by six.f 

Turgot wanted to remove ruinous burdens. His 
plan included schools ; it would have allowed vil- 
lagers to apportion their taxes ; to care for the 
poor ; to choose local deputies, who should choose 
deputies of provincial assemblies ; who should 
send deputies to a General Assembly of France. 

It was a great plan, quite at variance with 

* Young's Travels. t Turgot. 



20 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

Rousseau. Most writers date the Revolution from 
May 5, 1789, when the States-General met. But 
Turgot's advent began the Revolution in 1771. 
Later, Turgot saw that a workman's ability to 
work is property and should have property protec- 
tion. He wanted reform by royalty, not against it. 

Adam was not more surprised at Eve's appear- 
ance in Eden than was France at Turgot's new 
ideas. Great was Madame Maurepas for bringing 
Turgot to the front. 

Louis recalled the old Paris parliament, he har- 
assed and embittered it, and then tried to force it 
to be his servile tool. But, if resistance is pos- 
sible, submission to insult is not human nature. 
Louis's insults spurred it to opposition, and thus 
he himself inaugurated the great struggle. 

Royal extravagance was great ; king, queen, 
princes and courtiers squandered the nation's 
money. Royalty counteracted Turgot's reforms ; 
the nobles, high clergy, and tax farmers were 
Turgot's foes. 

To royal and noble extortion, was added in 
1774-75, bread scarcity. Hunger caused riots. 
The people were suffering, starving. Turgot re- 
duced the grain tax, but hunger drove the people 
wild. He gave public work, but hunger increased. 
He offered premiums for imports of wheat, but 
kings had given away the right to haul it or to 
make bread ; monopolists checked relief to starv- 
ing France. 



THE WORLD*S GREATEST CONFLICT. 21 



Suffering drove the people to frenzy. Mobs 
destroyed stores of grain, because it was kept 
from them. The people were very hungry, very 
angry, very raving, but who will not rave when 
the children starve .'* Necker attacked Turgot's 
policy. It was said that wheat was not lacking, but 
the king's law for its distribution. 

A hungry mob invaded Versailles (May 2, 1775) ; 
they shouted to Louis for bread. He tried to 
address them. They refused to listen. Dishonest 
Louis foolishly tried to appease them, not at his 
expense, but that of merchants ; not by buying 
bread for charity, but by an arbitrary discount of 
the price of bread. It was not a reduction of price 
that the penniless wanted, it was bread itself ; but 
Louis had neither the kindness to feed them nor 
the justice to protect Paris. His act sent the 
mob to Paris to pillage the bakers' shops. Turgot, 
not Louis, quieted the riot. Then Louis decreed 
the old price, and the Paris Parliament headed op- 
position. Louis ordered it not to meet. It did 
meet, and placarded Paris with requests that the 
king provide cheaper bread. 

The people sided against Louis. They justly 
blamed him for dear bread. His reduction of price 
flew all over France, without the retraction. 
Mobs seized bread at prices that ruined mer- 
chants ; or they took it for nothing. France was in 
a great spasm of rioting. Louis brought an army 
to Versailles, but for what he did not know. 



22 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

Turgot required him to give energetic orders, but 
dishonest Louis tried to nullify these orders ; other 
and better men suppressed the extensive insurrec- 
tions. Turgot proclaimed that enough grain exist- 
ed ; that the price was not for the king, but for 
demand and supply to regulate, and the clergy were 
angry that he required them to read this proclama- 
tion from their pulpits. Pamphlets, ballads, carica- 
tures of Louis, the Queen and Turgot abounded. 

Louis wanted money. He always wanted money. 
Had he been as rich as an American railroad king 
he would still have lacked money. 

He pretended to reduce the royal expenses. He 
did so only on days when he had no money. The 
first receipt of taxes again inflated them. He had 
two brothers. Monsieur who believed nothing, and 
d'Artois, a great rowdy, who believed everything. 
These two kept hotel for the court, at the peo- 
ple's expense, with board but without those dis- 
agreeable things board bills. 

Turgot wanted the coronation to be at Paris in- 
stead of at Rheims. It would save eight million 
livres. He wanted to omit the king's oath to 
exterminate heretics. Louis dared not. So to 
Rheims the king went and took the oath, and spent 
the money that would have bought a great quan- 
tity of bread for his starving subjects. 

The high clergy petitioned Louis to deny to 
Protestants the right of meeting, marriage, and 
the teaching of their own children. If Protes- 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 23 

tants would persist in having children they must 
be taught to be Catholics. 

Tax farmers terribly oppressed France. So un- 
certain were Louis* taxes that none knew what 
sum they ought to pay. A mere tax clerk might 
decide. Laborers were responsible for laborers' 
taxes, so that the delinquents fell back upon those 
who could pay ; a great unfairness. Some of the 
taxes had no law. Such was the odious corvee 
(forced labor). Everything was arbitrary. 

January, 1776, Turgot asked Louis to abolish 
corvee, to put the road tax on land, to let all land 
pay its share, to remove vexatious taxes from 
food, to make manufacturing free to all, to 
abolish the many useless offices that hamper trade 
and labor, to legalize Protestant marriages, and 
to reduce the monstrous expenses of the king's 
household. Against Turgot swarmed a host of 
holders of undeserved and unearned pensions, 
donations, privileges of which they had swindled 
France. But for the time Turgot had the ear of 
the king and Louis signed these edicts. It was 
easier for him to sign than to adhere. 

Then the Paris Parliament rose in opposition. 
It held that feudal claims and the right to extort 
forced road labor were the property of nobles. 
Now that the wealthy land owners were to pay the 
road tax on land, they denounced it as ruinous, 
though they had long compelled the poor to pay 
it in labor without recompense. 



24 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

In spite of all the extravagances of queen, court, 
and nobles, Turgot's ability had overcome the 
deficiency. Business revived, money became 
easier ; it dropped to four per cent. Turgot was 
on the high road to make France again prosperous. 

But queen, nobles, and high clergy intrigued. 
Forged letters in his name were put into the mail. 
Louis was known to meanly violate the mails, to 
break seals. He stole letters, he got these 
forged ones. They were intended to provoke 
him to dismiss Turgot. The plot succeeded. The 
mail robber sent away his able minister. 

Lack of business confidence, dullness, new dis- 
tress followed the disastrous step. 

The treacherous king restored the odious forced 
labor, retracted freedom to manufacture, restored 
old oppressions. The false Louis was laying up 
wrath against himself. 



IIL 



IN June, 1777, Necker became Controller of 
Finance. He was not made a minister be- 
cause he was a Protestant. He borrowed freely and 
gave the appearance of prosperity. 
Necker. He abolished over five hundred sine- 
cures. He tried to remove the tolls 
by which rivers and roads were obstructed. He 
obtained thirty million livres from the high clergy. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 2$ 

He abolished mortmain ; he freed the king's 
serfs ; the Jura monks refused to free theirs unless 
paid for them ; those monks had to settle with 
the serfs in the Revolution afterwards. 

Necker abolished the compelling confession of 
guilt. (August 8, 1780.) 

Necker astonished France and gratified it by 
pubHshing his Report of the finances. Such a 
Report was never before published in France. 
The effect was prodigious. It was light in fiscal 
darkness. It seemed like progress. It indicated 
lono-ed-for reforms. France believed it. France 
believed in Necker. It believed that exposure of 
faults meant that those faults would now be re- 
moved. Why publish an evil but to reform ? 
France saw in that Report twenty-eight millions in 
pensions, double that of the rest of Europe.* It 
saw gross inequalities. But it looked for better 
days. 

That Report showed a surplus for 1781. The 
surplus appeared by omissions ; it was not real. 
But it helped the controller to a great loan. 

But losers of sinecures, pensioned nobles and 
clergy, swindlers of France who feared recla- 
mation, the king's two brothers who wanted un- 
limited freedom to spend the nation's money were 
all against Necker and equity. 

Necker's loan furnished money for a year. He 
asked to be made a minister. Louis made the 

* Martin. Vol. II. p. 450. 



26 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 

condition that Necker must renounce his Protes- 
tant religion. Necker manfully refused. He 
asked to have inspection of purchases for army 
and navy. Again Louis refused. Necker then 
resigned May 12, 1781. The trifling Louis 
never forgave Necker that his resignation was 
written on small paper without address or title. 

Freed from the wholesome restraint of Necker's 
presence, Louis, only three days later, showed his 
own innate arrogance and injustice by decreeing 
that candidates for even the lowest army com- 
missions must prove noble descent for four gen- 
erations ! Nearly all the French were excluded ! 
Sons of persons ennobled three generations before 
were barred out. The same rule was practiced 
with applicants for clergy places. 

By this insolent act, at once odious and useless, 
Louis dealt a severe blow to himself. It refreshed 
the anger of the army, the navy, the people, 
already aroused by his many acts of arrogance 
and treachery. It outraged the French people's 
sense of equity. 

Louis restored many of the useless offices that 
Necker had aboHshed, and increased again the 
taxes of the poorer classes. They must pay for 
these restored sinecures. 

Louis always claimed the exclusive right to 
make all laws and decide on all taxes. But he 
recklessly violated the old laws and equity and 
customs, by arbitrary caprices, sometimes by gross 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 27 

offense against the poor, hard-working cures ; then 
against the nobles ; again he attacked the vital 
interests of the French merchants ; then of the 
manufacturers; and finally of the business classes, 
making himself practically the enemy of his 
people. 

Space is lacking to enumerate his many acts of 
cruel folly, ill temper and malice. 

Joli d'Fleuri and then d'Ormesson followed as 
finance Ministers. 

When the extravagance and folly of the royal 
family had made a financial stringency, so severe 
that d'Ormesson could not borrow, and had forced 
the bank to lend France six million livres, the 
foolish Louis whose dull mind could always find 
some means to outrage France, had no more com- 
mon sense or good disposition than to buy Ram- 
bouillet for himself, with fourteen million livres of 
the nation's money, and he did not even mention it 
to France's hard-pressed controller of finance who 
must find the money and pay the bill. This secret 
fraud became known. People rushed to the bank 
to withdraw their money ; the run was severe ; it 
became panic ; it spread rapidly ; money hid itself ; 
distress became general ; France was suffering 
intensely from Louis the bad-intentioned, the 
thief. The public conscience of that honorable 
nation was touched. It condemned the theft; it 
was profoundly dissatisfied with the corrupt and 
stupid king and with the frivolous queen, whose 



28 THE WORLD*S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

own mother* had written in 1776, "She is hurry- 
ing at great pace to her ruin." f 

It was no more right for Louis to buy Ram- 
bouillet with the money of France than it would be 
for President Harrison to buy with public money 
the Hotel Brunswick for his own private use. 

Just when Necker's Report had inspired hope, 
Louis, by tyrannical reaction, lavished gifts in 
State and Church, on unworthy high nobles, in- 
creased odious taxes, making the poor still poorer 
and the rich still richer, so now he did not reform 
even when the terrible effects of his folly were 
ruining France. He was plunging it deeper and 
deeper in debt ; even the monstrous taxes that he 
extorted were so wasted as not to keep up with 
royal and courtly prodigality. 



IV. 



THREE and a half years after Necker, on 
October 30, 1784, Louis made Calonne con- 
troller of finance. Calonne found a great debt, a 
great deficiency, an empty treasury. 
Calonne. He formed a deceptive, compound 
interest sinking fund. His policy 
was to spend money freely, to appear rich in 
order to be able to borrow. He hesitated at no 

* Maria Theresa's letter. 

t ** She tried to restrain her giddy, reckless daughter till her death in 1708," 
— Alison, Vol. I. p. 56. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 29 

extravagance. He lavished money and gifts; he 
dazzled by sumptuous display. He brought back 
old abuses. He held the treasury wide open to 
the follies of the lavish Queen, the princes, the 
avaricious high nobles. The king's brothers had 
immense sums. The Queen bought magnificent 
St. Cloud with the nation's money. This was a 
bold embezzlement, but such were frequent. The 
treasury paid debts for nobles. Ruined courtiers 
had relief from it. Everything was corrupt, 
everything dishonest like the dishonest royal pair. 
Calonne gave from the treasury for mere asking. 
Speculation was rampant. The golden days of 
roguery had come. Royal orders on the treasury 
were prodigious ; they exceeded those of bad Louis 
the Fifteenth. They were as secret as possible ; 
false Louis pretended economy while he squan- 
dered at a mad rate. He made offices to sell for 
money. Frauds luxuriated. He increased farmers' 
taxes from twelve to forty-eight per cent., and let 
them buy suspended rescripts at low price, and he 
redeemed them at par ; a fraud on France. The 
unloving bride and groom had now become a lov- 
ing pair. The very scandals she had raised drove 
her to Louis. Her influence over him now be- 
came very damaging to France. Her brother, 
the Emperor of Germany, Joseph the Second, 
begged her to reform her actions. 

Calonne's first great loans were exhausted. He 
wanted another. The parliament refused its assent. 



30 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

Bad Louis compelled it (December 30, 1784). 
He forced the money for the folly of himself, the 
queen, the court, and favorites. Stock gambling 
ran wild. Calonne annulled all short sales. Bank- 
ers were deep in them, panic came, money sud- 
denly hid itself, the bank asked aid. Calonne 
handed out twelve million of treasury credits to his 
friends to sustain public credit ; they omitted to 
repay it and credit was not restored. 

1774-85 saw two severe winters; the second 
was followed by excessive drought, and rural 
France was very wretched. Still Louis had no 
mercy ; his royal taxes on the third order were 
violently extorted. 



V. 



GENEVA tried to escape from aristocratic 
rule. But Louis, with Sardinia and Berne, 
compelled submission. The French with regret 
saw this oppression of Louis in Switz- 
1782. erland. 

While Joseph the Second of Austria 
was making liberal reforms with a free hand, Louis 
was thus subduing a free foreign city. 

It has been the fashion for writers while admit- 
ting his lack of ability, to praise Louis for "good 
intentions," but when we look for the particular 



THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 3 1 

acts or deeds of *'good intention," we fail to find 
them. We do, however, find him in many acts 
the marplot of what good men like Turgot, La- 
fayette, Lanjuinais would do. 



VI. 



EVEN in Austria, under Maria Theresa, 
nobility and clergy were taxed, though 
lightly, and peasants had appeal to 
courts, while all this was lacking in Joseph 

France. the second of 

Joseph the Second (1780-90) pro- Austria, 
claimed uniform Austrian courts and 
administration, unity of tax. He abolished tithes, 
corvee and primogeniture. He made himself in- 
dependent of the Pope ; he forbade Rome's 
foreign interference ; suppressed two thousand 
convents ; kept seven hundred for teaching ; re- 
duced the great number of clergy from sixty- 
three thousand to twenty-seven thousand ; for- 
bade pilgrimages ; instituted toleration, moral 
catechism, civil marriage ; established many hos- 
pitals and asylums, permitted a free press and 
limited executions to assassins. He promoted 
arts, manufactures and commerce. He tried to 
absorb Bavaria. The offended French laid blame 
to his sister, their Queen Marie Antoinette. 

Joseph the Second threatened Holland in 1785. 



32 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

He demanded ten million florins. Holland would 
pay but five million five hundred thousand. To 
prevent war between Austria and Holland, Louis 
the Sixteenth paid the balance four million five 
hundred thousand with French money. This pay- 
ment shocked French pride. Again they blamed 
their queen. They had long stigmatized her as 
"the Austrian." 



VII. 

IN 1785 France was deluged with royal scandal 
by an affair of a necklace. Cardinal d' Rohan 
was a bad character. He secretly bought a neck- 
lace on credit, in the queen's name. 
A Diamond It was worth onc million six hundred 
Necklace. thousand livrcs (about three hundred 
thousand dollars). He showed a let- 
ter signed "Marie Antoinette d'France." Pay- 
time came, the merchant asked for his money and so 
Louis discovered the affair. He ordered the arrest 
of the bad cardinal. D'Rohan demanded trial by 
parliament. The Pope suspended him for recog- 
nizing the civil authority of parliament to try him a 
prince of the church, 

D'Rohan had to retract his demand for such trial, 
but parliament held the case, the first trial of a 
Roman Catholic prelate by a secular court. 

The queen was in a great panic ; so was Paris ; 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 33 

SO was France. Was she guilty } Everybody 
asked it. Most persons believed it ; others, 
through hate, wished it. 

The queen denied that she had authorized him 
to buy the necklace. Here was plain battle be- 
tween the queen and the church prince. France 
was against her ; her bad behavior had made for 
her a bad reputation. France believed " the 
Austrian " capable of almost any wickedness. If 
guilty, it was not her first offense. Her habits 
had invited distrust. 

Had d'Rohan been the dupe of another swind- 
ling woman, La Motte ? Was the letter forged } 
Or had he really bought the magnificent necklace 
for the queen without her husband's knowledge ? 
Nothing would acquit her in the public mind but 
proof of innocence ; thus the burden of proof was 
put on her. 

Before the court of public opinion it was the 
queen that was being tried, the queen's honor on 
which verdict was given. A good moral character 
in that day would have been priceless to her. 

It was extreme folly for Louis to bring this 
suit, to parade his wife's damaged reputation be- 
fore France. But Louis was a man of folly. He 
was already at loggerheads with his parliament. 
The arrogant blockhead, at this critical time, 
again quarrelled with and insulted and abused 
this very body of men till he goaded them to rage 
about a new loan that he demanded, and which 



34 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

they unanimously refused to sanction. By arbi- 
trary orders he compelled them to register it, thus 
humiliated them, made them to feel anew the keen 
sting of bad royalty, and then sent his wife's honor 
to public trial before this insulted parliament. 

Princes of the blood openly canvassed against 
the qeeen.* It was not, as many writers have 
given the impression, the common people only, it 
was the- highest nobles as well that abhorred the 
"Austrian woman." 

For nine months the scandalous trial continued. 
Then by five majority, all of them of the higher 
class of French society, the debauchee cardinal 
was acquitted. The queen was stigmatized. 

Parliament condemned the Cardinal's accom- 
plice, Madame La Motte, to be whipped, im- 
prisoned, and branded on each shoulder with a 
letter V. ( Voleur — thief.) 

Where was the diamond necklace .-* Just that 
France wished and still wishes to know. 

The cardinal was unloved ; he was a bad char- 
acter ; the French did not admire him ; yet so dis- 
reputable was the queen that the people were 
wild with delight over his acquittal; they gave him 
an ovation ; everybody but stupid royalty had fore- 
seen the result. 

Probably the queen was not guilty in the neck- 
lace affair, but the public mind was ready to con- 
demn her as a return for other misdeeds. If 

* Madame Campan's Memoirs, Vol. II. p. 286, 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 35 

guilty, then this crime was of far less magnitude 
than her known knavery in purchase of St. Cloud 
with public money. 



VIII. 

CALONNE over-issued the loans of 1781-82, 
and thus fraudulently obtained one hun- 
dred and twenty-three million livres. 
Credit was low, and dying ; in the Another 
ten years since Turgot royal taxes great fraud, 
and royal and court extravagance 
had been increased to a monstrous extent. For 
this the king and queen were directly responsi- 
ble. They were the tax layers, the squanderers 
of French substance. 

" There exists an annual deficit of one hundred 
million," said Calonne to Louis. 

Even the reckless and prodigal Calonne now 
called for a halt in their monstrous iniquity. He 
asked for a reform. He proposed creating parish, 
district and province assemblies to levy and appor- 
tion taxes, to tax land so that the acres of the 
nobles then exempt must bear their share of bur- 
den, to abolish forced labor of poor peasants to 
make the roads, to remove the tariffs between 
towns and between city and country, to take away 
all taxes that hamper industry and trade, to sell 
the king's lands to pay his debts, to reduce the 



36 THE world's greatest conflict. 

king's own household and expenses by twenty 
million a year.* Great proposals to come from a 
bad minister. 

'* This is pure Neckerism," said Louis, 
*' I can give you nothing better," responded 
Calonne. 

Parliament would not register Calonne's plan. 
Then he said to Louis : ''France at this moment 
is only kept up by a species of artifice." 



IX. 



CALONNE called for a convocation of notable 
persons for advice. They came together 
on February 22, 1787. Notables had no legal 

authority. They were convoked, but 

The Notables they wcrc merely a debating club. 

convoked. They did not abolish privileges or 

make taxes equal. They comprised 
seven royal princes, thirty-six dukes, peers and 
marshals, fourteen high clericals, thirty-eight mag- 
istrates, several officials, and only seven commoners 
out of the total one hundred and forty-four ; ninety- 
eight per cent, of the French were not represented. 
They were a phantom. They demanded a true 
statement of receipts and expenditures. Calonne 
refused ; they persisted ; they wanted to know 
the extent and nature of the deficits. For what 

* Calonne'^ s precis cfu:i ridn, Droz, Vol. I. p. 461. Bailie, Vol. II. p. 267. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 3/ 

is money wanted ? This was a very embarrassing 
question for king and queen, and also for Calonne. 
He did not yield. The revolution commenced 
with the parliaments and " privileged classes." It 
was already getting headway. 

The queen disliked Calonne personally. She 
disliked the tendencies of France. April 9, 1787, 
she induced Louis to dismiss him. Louis pre- 
tended to give the statement required, but it was 
not clear. The notables referred the whole mat- 
ter back to the bewildered king and dispersed 
themselves, a failure. (May 25, 1787.) 

Louis called from the church Lomenie (d'Brienne) 
to take charge of the finances. He, though an 
archbishop, was an atheist. A plan was made : 
(i.), free trade in grain, (2.), provincial assemblies, 
(3.), abolish forced labor {corvee)^ (4.), have a 
stamp tax, (5.), and a land tax. 

Had Louis pressed all five measures at once, he 
must have succeeded. But, always incompetent, 
he offered the first three, which parliament regis- 
tered ; then waited till their willingness had gone 
by, and offered the stamp tax. 

To this parliament responded by calling for the 
financial accounts ; then it refused by voting that 
only States-General could grant general taxes. 
Louis peremptorily compelled parliament to regis- 
ter these edicts. It protested its grief at having 
been compelled, in this reign, to register enormous 
increase of taxes. (August 6, 1787.) 



38 THE world's greatest conflict. 

Next day parliament declared their forced regis- 
try null and void. An immense crowd outside 
manifested delight at this abrogation act. France 
was tired of its inefficient, wasteful king and 
queen. Louis exiled the resisting parliament to 
Troyes.* 

The alarmed Lomenie suppressed a few useless 
places. The court made outcry for this loss of 
plunder. He had Calonne indicted ; but the peo- 
ple regarded it as an indictment of queen and 
corrupt court. 

Louis sent the stamp tax decree to be registered 
in the Chamber of Accounts and Court of Aids. 
Both responded by demanding recall of the par- 
liament and assembly of the States-General. Re- 
volution was revolving. France had three parties : 
one of abuses ; a larger one, that wanted to take 
to themselves much of the king's arbitrary power, 
and maintain abuses for their own noble and 
clergy orders ; a third, and much the largest, the 
party of reform and redress. 

The second and third parties held that only a 
representative assembly from all France, the 
*' States-General," could grant the much-needed 
reform and the equality of taxes ; could relieve 
France from ruin caused by the political crimes of 
its kings. 

Clubs sprang into existence. They began with 
the Breton Club. Clubs became hotbeds of op- 

* Alison, Vol. I. p. 6i. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 39 

position to Louis. His ministers closed these 
clubs. Then people cried out against the queen 
"Madame Deficit!" as they had cried ''the 
Austrian ! " France was deeply agitated. Parlia- 
ments, tribunals, magistracies, demanded the recall 
of the Paris parliament, and the convocation of 
the States. The electricity of revolution was in 
the air. The calls were vehement. The French 
were in earnest. Louis withdrew his two tax 
edicts and let the parliament come back to Paris. 

Louis would convoke States-Generals for five 
years if parliament would register a series of 
annual loans of four hundred and twenty million 
livres for that time. Louis called the parliament to 
him. He made a speech. His ministers declared 
this scheme registered. It was a knavish trick. 
The Duke of Orleans protested. Louis sent him 
away. The parliament voted that arbitrary arrests 
were illegal. Louis ordered this vote struck 
from their register. It demanded fixed terms of 
magistrates. Louis refused. Magistrates must be 
held in his arbitrary power by chance of re- 
moval. He ordered freedom of Protestants. This 
the parliament vetoed, and it opposed an illegal 
tax ; it resolved against arrests except for imme- 
diate hearing by competent magistrates ; and 
it voted in favor of only legal exercise of the king's 
functions. It voted for States-General. 

Louis caused his council to annul these votes of 
parliament, and he ordered the arbitrary arrest of 



40 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

two members, Barthelemy and Goesland, for mak- 
ing these motions. This is the same Louis whom 
writers have taught us to regard as ** well inten- 
tioned ! " Major Agoust came with soldiers to 
make the arrests. Parliament had voted the ses- 
sion permanent. Nobody could point out which 
men they were. After thirty-six hours session 
the two members " yielded to force " and were 
sent to distant fortress prisons. This despotic 
foolishness, imprisoning members for doing their 
duty, gave fresh irritation to France. Louis ar- 
bitrarily reduced the parliament to sixty-nine 
members. He meant to punish it into obedience. 
He took away its political powers and announced 
a plenary court of high courtiers to register 
his edicts. This bogus court met but once, 
was discordant and adjourned indefinitely. Louis 
prorogued all parliaments, while he should create 
new courts to suit his purposes. Paris was still 
calm. But France itself was greatly excited. 
Noblesse and peasants, all classes, opposed the 
arbitrary measures. Tumults began ; revolts 
threatened. All demanded States-General. Louis 
did not want that Legislature. He wanted money ; 
absolute rule. He would sell some few national 
rights to his people for great sums of continuous 
money to spend. He would have had money 
enough if he would guard the treasury from all 
but honest demands. The treasury was empty, 
Lom^nie appealed to the clergy. They gave him 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 4I 

less than two millions.* They protested against 
taxing their property, though they had vast pos- 
sessions. Louis exempted it from his tax decrees. 
Though Louis compelled registry of the great 
loans, nobody would subscribe money to them. 
Resources were gone. Credit was lacking. Coin 
payments were stopped. Something must be 
done. It was the bad-intentioned Louis and his 
not well-intentioned queen, and the evil court 
royal that had brought France to this. It was all 
avoidable, had royalty been honest and capable. 



X. 



LOUIS had offended all classes. None had 
confidence in him. In provincial towns it 
was the privileged orders that gave much of the 
adverse influence. 

Rouen parliament declared as trait- open Revoiu- 
ors all who obeyed Louis's new court tion began 
decrees ; Louis exiled that parliament. J"iy ^7, 1788. 

Brittany blazed with opposition. 
The nobles declared imfamous any who should 
accept office in his new courts. A regiment 
refused to obey him. Twelve gentlemen were 
sent to Louis to denounce his ministry. He sent 
them to the Bastille. He sent sixteen thousand 

* One million eight hundred thousand livres. 



42 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 

troops into Brittany. Not overawed, the Bretons 
still vigorously opposed. 

The Pyrenees valleys were almost in insurrection. 
At Grenoble the people took arms, erected barri- 
cades, drove back the soldiers. Louis exiled the 
parliament of Grenoble ; the people brought it 
back ; the people called together the States of 
Dauphiny. This was revolt. This began active 
revolution, July, 1788.* The States met ; one 
half of the deputation was from the third order, 
and they met in one chamber. The States refused 
any new tax till the States-General should meet. 

Anarchy was too common. By his arbitrary, 
foolish reign, his despotic assumption of all power 
to make laws ; his refusal of wholesome restraints ; 
his bad disposition and intentions ; his unreliable 
character ; his reckless waste of the money and 
credit of France, and the unpopular character of his 
queen, and follies of his court, Louis had made 
wreck of his government. Let no one call that 
man "well-intentioned" who deliberately pros- 
trates the happiness, the business, the prosperity 
of a whole great, brave people. 

With his government blocked, Louis was driven 
by lack of funds, to call (August 8, 1788) the 
States-General to meet May, 1789. 

The bank had suspended specie payment ; the 
ministry fell. At this fall the public rejoiced with 

* This active revolution really began July 17, 1788, though it is usually de- 
scribed as beginning July 14, 1789, with the capture of the Bastile. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 43 

illuminations, fireworks, shouts, music and riots. 
Still the queen caused the scandalously immoral 
archbishop Lomenie the atheist to be made a car- 
dinal. A lascivious atheist cardinal ! No wonder 
both Catholic and disbelieving French were scan- 
dalized. The people broke out in fury. Troops 
gave bloody suppression to a riot August 28, 
1788. 



XL 



LOUIS was compelled to recall Necker. The 
Paris mob fairly howled with joy for Neck- 
er's return. Public funds rose thirty per cent. 
He pledged his own great fortune. 
He obtained advances. The parlia- Necker 
ments were reinstated. The bank Again: 1788. 
resumed. The Paris parliament reg- 
istered the call for States-General "as in 1614." 
This would cancel the equal vote and make the 
Third Estate,* representing twenty-four million or 
more people, only equal to one half that of noblesse 
and clergy representing six hundred thousand, a 
gross inequality ; and Poictiers districts with seven 
hundred thousand persons would have no more 
deputies than Dourdan with eight thousand. No 
more of " as in 1614" for France. Shouts, growls, 
howls of disapproval ran through France. 

* "The Third Estate is the French nation minus the nobles and clergy," 
said Abbe Sieyes in 1788. 



44 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

Louis decreed to this twenty-four million one 
half of the whole number of deputies, to the six hun- 
dred thousand noblesse and clergy, the other half, 
and representations " on basis of combined tax and 
populations." Many common people did not vote. 
The middle class generally made the elections.* 
Among noblesse and clergy was much disagree- 
ment and clamor. 



XII. 



A FULL States-General would have been 
eleven hundred and seven members, but 
some localities had failed to elect. f 

Eleven hundred and twenty-eight 

The Active dcputics appeared and marched in 

French grand procession (May 4) with the 

Revolution. ^^^^ ^^ Versailles. Nobles and high 

states-Gen- clcrgy displayed magnificent apparel. 

erai. (1789.) But it was the plainly-dressed Third 

Estate who received the rapturous 

applause of the innumerable multitude. 

The five hundred and sixty-five Third Estate 
deputies represented about ninety-seven per cent, 
of the French people ; the five hundred and sixty- 
three nobles and clergy only about two per cent. 
A great struggle was made by nobles and high 

* Martin, Vol. II. p. 572. 

t Thiers' French Revolution, Vol. I. pp. 34, 42. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 45 

clergy, to restrict this ninety-seven per cent, of the 
people to but thirty-three per cent, of the influence, 
so that one fortieth of France should outvote the 
other thirty-nine fortieths. This deeply irrita- 
ted the Third Estate. This irritation was fresh- 
ened by the mean action of Louis in leaving the 
Third Estate deputies standing out in the rain, 
when they came to be presented, while the nobles 
and clergy were quickly admitted. The foolish 
king had taken a bad time to show contempt for 
the common people. 

If men are better than property and rank, then 
this thirty-nine fortieths of the French, the 
Third Estate, should have had eleven hundred 
deputies and the nobles and clergy but twenty- 
eight ; or five hundred and thirty-five less than 
they had. 

About one half of the Third Estate deputies 
were lawyers ; only two were clergymen ; very 
few were philosophers ; eighty were magistrates 
or mayors ; one hundred and seventy-six were 
merchants or farmers. 

» 

At the opening the king's speech did not pro- 
pose anything tangible ; Louis failed to take the 
valuable initiative. Necker's speech helped noth- 
ing. Necker was great only in finance. 

Though liberty and equality was the cry, yet 
it was equality before the law, equal taxes, equal 
chance to manifest merit and receive its reward, 



46 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

equal justice, equal chance of employment, no 
favoritism — these the Third Estate desired. They 
*' did not extend their wishes beyond moderate 
monarchy," says Thiers. " If the king had spon- 
taneously established some equality in official ap- 
pointments and given some guarantees, all discon- 
tent would have been appeased for a long time," * 
says Guizot the Bourbonist. 

It lowered the dignity of the king that he had 
no plan ready, not even for mode of procedure, 
no ideas to guide theirs, in deciding or in voting. 
Should they sit as one body or two, or three ? 

If as one body, then the Third Estate, being a 
slight majority, could outvote the other orders. 
If as two, then each would be a check on the 
other. 

For seventeen days Louis weakly let the three 
orders quarrel about what he might have settled 
in advance. This increased the already great bit- 
terness ; more and more did it convince the French 
that Louis was incapable to rule fairly. 

" If the king had tact enough to place himself 
at our head instead of betraying wishes at variance 
with ours ! " exclaimed the orator Mirabeau. 

The Commons invited the other orders to join 
them. Some of the clergy did join. The old 
nobility was unwilling to mix with the clergy, 
because it contained curates of plebeian birth. 
The clergy and nobles debated separately with 

* Guizot, Vol. V. p. 385. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 4/ 

tumult. Financial business was pressing. Some- 
thing must be done. 

For forty-three days the Third Estate waited ; 
on the forty-fourth it took decided action ; it 
assumed the name of the " National Assembly " 
and was at once a power higher than the king, 
nobles and clergy. 

Three days later the king arbitrarily assumed to 
adjourn the Third Estate for two days. The 
members coming, found their hall closed and sur- 
rounded by soldiers. They were alarmed ; in- 
censed. If the king could adjourn them for two 
days, it followed that he might adjourn them 
indefinitely. 

With the enthusiasm of patriotism they met in 
a tennis court, and swore to never separate till the 
Constitution should be established. 

Louis came and held a " royal sitting " June 23. 
Again he kept the Third Estate deputies a long 
time out in the rain, after nobles and clergy had 
been admitted. Soldiers were at hand to overawe 
them. 

He arbitrarily annulled the votes already an- 
nounced : he upheld as property inviolate, the 
servile *' feudal rights " which oppressed France. 
He ordered that the distinctions as three orders 
be maintained ; agreeing only that they might 
vote together on general questions ; he did not 
order joint meetings ; he demanded obedience by 
the Third Estate; he merely presumed it of the 



48 THE world's greatest conflict. 

high orders ; he vainly boasted that he would 
establish French welfare ; he declared himself the 
sole representative of the people. It was two 
months too late for this silly talk. 

Louis retired. The Assembly was firm. A 
court lackey admonished them to go out. Mira- 
beau exclaimed that only with bayonets could they 
be driven from their hall. The king's workmen 
came to take away the benches ; armed soldiers 
crossed the hall ; the king's guard came to the 
very door. 

The Assembly voted to adhere. " The king 
cannot prevent what does not require his assent," 
said Barnave. Lest the king's officers should 
arrest them they voted deputies inviolate, and 
made it a capital crime to do violence to one of 
them. 

June 24 a majority of the clergy joined the 
Third Estate in the Assembly. The next day 
forty-five nobles, headed by the Duke of Orleans, 
came in. 

June 27, Louis ordered the rest to join, though 
he had so recently pronounced against it. He had 
made issue with the common people and they 
had beaten him. He yielded because he feared 
the French troops would take the popular side 
against him. 

Even then, had Louis promptly and freely abol- 
ished extravagance, favoritism and some of the 
most oppresive burdens, made equality of taxes 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 49 

and public employment, and protected working 
people, all might have been quieted. 

The previous year (1788) a hail-storm had dam- 
aged the crops; now in 1789 bread riots were 
fearful. 

Louis assembled his foreign troops. This ex- 
cited public suspicion and animosity. 

July II, Louis had the folly to dismiss the popu- 
lar Necker. Rumors flew about that troops would 
disperse the Assembly. Paris was in uproar. The 
people encouraged the Assembly. The guards 
were excited. Three hundred of them deserted 
and joined the crowd at the Palais Royal. Eleven 
of them were arrested. The crowd broke open 
the prison and released them. The king, on pe- 
tition of the Assembly, pardoned them. 

Louis made Foulon Intendant of Marine. This 
was the man who had said that hungry people might 
eat grass. 

The king's folly in assembling the foreign troops 
at Versailles, this Foulon appointment, his threat- 
ening attitude, aroused the people ; orators mounted 
on tables in the streets, harangued the crowds ; any 
citizen became an orator ; the press spoke for re- 
sistance ; the Palais Royal rang with the cry, " To 
arms ! " * Louis seemed to be about to use force. 

July 12. Prince Lambese brought foreign troops 
to restrain the French Guards. It resulted in 
street fights with the foreign soldiers. Lambese 

* The Palais Royal was Orleans' headquarters. 



50 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

ordered cavalry charges. The French troops re- 
fused to act against the people. A panic ran 
through Paris. Everybody was excited. 

Men rushed to enroll and quickly formed the 
Civic (National) Guard, with Lafayette as its com- 
mander. The red and blue cockade * appeared 
everywhere. Men ransacked Paris for arms. They 
were ready to resist the king's favorites. 

By July 13, Louis, now thoroughly frightened, 
went to the opposite extreme. He withdrew his 
troops to the Champ de Mars and Versailles, 
leaving Paris unprotected. Then crowds rushed 
to the Invalides and seized many thousands of 
muskets, and twenty cannon. 

Electors met at Hotel de Ville and organized a 
committe to govern Paris, abandoned by the king 
after he had angered it to revolt and riot. This 
action of the people was essential for self protec- 
tion. Had the foolish king protected Paris and 
behaved civilly the revolt had not occurred. 

By the fourteenth the excitement had become 
frenzy. The guns of the Bastille overlooked St. 
Antoine. '* Down with the Bastille!" rang 
through all Paris. A crowd assembled around it. 
Somebody fired at it. The soldiers within re- 
turned the fire. The people stormed and took it. 
They carried the head of its commander, de 
Launay, on a pike. They went into a grand ex- 
citement over their first victory. 

* The white was added some days later. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 5 1 

The foreign troops were visited at Versailles, 
and flattered* by the queen. News of this act of 
folly still further annoyed Paris. 

The king's two brothers ran away from France, 
whose money they had so freely abstracted and 
spent. 

The bringing of foreign troops to Paris proved 
thus to have been only a new irritation, for Louis 
had no genius to use them. The insurrection 
forced him to send them away, and to recall 
Necker. King Louis had now destroyed what 
little prestige remained to him. 



XIIL 

THE mob captured Louis's new minister, 
Foulon. They hanged him with hay in 
his mouth, and then paraded his head on a pike. 
Good sense then certainly dictated 
to Louis to resign. He had been King and 
on the throne fifteen years, and he commons, 
knew his whole career was already a 
miserable failure. He knew he could not reisrn. 

Louis came into Paris. Lafayette handed him 
the new Revolution's cockade — the white had 
been added — with the remark that it "would go 
around the world." 

* Mirabeau. 



52 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

Royal authority was gone. France was aflame. 
Peasants rose in arms ; they burned chateaux and 
title-deeds and killed landlords. " Fire for the 
mansions, peace for the cottage ! " was the cry. 

Disorder swept over the country. The courts 
of law had vanished. For security, committees 
were everywhere formed. 

Town gate custom houses were abolished. 

Famine was terrible, but farmers were afraid to 
bring wheat to market lest they be robbed. Beg- 
gars were in countless numbers.* Everything 
was in disorder. 

One hundred and eighty, then two hundred and 
forty, and later three hundred representatives 
chosen by the forty-eight sections formed the 
Paris government. Each section had its separate 
assembly. P'orty-eight assemblies, all against bad 
foolish Louis ; all hating the bad deeds of the 
queen ; but all still royalists. 

The National Assembly declared the " Rights 
of Man," original equality ; liberty, property, se- 
curity, resistance to oppression ; the nation is 
sovereign, every power emanates from it ; freedom 
to do whatever does not injure another; law is 
general will ; public burdens should be propor- 
tioned to fortunes ; all men may vote. 

At the one memorable sitting of August 4, 
1789, it abolished, first, serfdom ; second, senioral 
jurisdictions ; third, exclusive game rights ; fourth, 

* Blanc computes them at two million in 1789. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 53 

sale of office ; fifth, special privileges of cities and 
provinces ; sixth, pensions undeserved. 

And it ordered : first, equal taxes ; second, any 
citizen may hold civil or military office ; third, 
tithes to be redeemed ; fourth, abatement of pigeon 
and rabbit nuisances ; fifth, reform of wardenships ; 
sixth, redemption of senioral rights. 

Everywhere payment of tithes was refused ; the 
game that had been allowed to destroy crops of 
the poor was slaughtered. 

The French were uneducated in parliamentary 
practice. They did not understand its procedure. 
Motions were made and carried and afterwards re- 
duced to writing by committees and again voted 
at a later session. The House was boisterous. 

The king caviled at the " Rights of Man." He 
ought either to have accepted or rejected the dec- 
laration instantly. But he was irritated ; he hesi- 
tated. The Assembly voted an income tax of 
twenty-five per cent, to be paid within three years. 

Wise men advised the king to transfer the gov- 
ernment to a distance from inflamed Paris. The 
stupid, worthless king actually went to sleep while 
a grave delegation was thus advising him on this 
extremely important matter ; he suddenly woke, 
said " No," and left the room, with abrupt ill-man- 
ners. He demurred to the sweeping acts of 
August 4 ; he neither accepted nor refused them. 
The Assembly made a Constitution. 

A drunken orgy occurred at Versailles. King 



54 THE world's greatest conflict. 

and queen appeared, the new people's cockade was 
slio:hted, and wild remarks made. This news ex- 
asperated a crowd of Paris women to invade Ver-^ 
sailles, October 5, 1789. They wanted bread. 
Men joined the mob. A raving, hungry crowd 
marched from Paris to Versailles. They rioted in 
the king's palace grounds ; they took possession of 
the Assembly hall. They remained all night, and 
required the king and his family to go with them 
to Paris. They wanted him to approve the " Rights 
of Man " and the Constitution. He yielded. 

It was believed that the Duke of Orleans stimu- 
lated this riot in the hope that Louis would be 
set aside, and that he as a professed liberal would 
gain the crown himself. He used much money 
for the mob. 

The mob escorted the king, queen and family to 
the Tuileries. It was a dismal procession — roy- 
alty and starvation. Lafayette had come with the 
National Guard to protect the king. His Memoirs 
deny the oft-repeated story, that heads were car- 
ried on pikes before the king's carriage. The 
Assembly, too, moved to Paris. It was high time 
for Louis to abdicate. 

The Assembly divided France into eighty-three 
departments. They ordered the sale of crown 
lands and clergy property to redeem four hundred 
millions of assignats which they issued ; they de- 
creed citizenship to Jews ; forbade monastic vows ; 
made the French clergy free of the pope ; abol- 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 55 

ished nobility, and established new courts of jus- 
tice with elective judges, jury, counsel and appeal. 
They confiscated convents and pensioned the 
monks and nuns ; they conceded liberty of wor- 
ship, though the clergy opposed it. 

Mirabeau and Lafayette were rivals in influenc- 
ing the king, but Louis suspected Mirabeau and 
the queen distrusted Lafayette, and the king's 
self-esteem and wrong-headedness spoiled all their 
advice. Louis paid Mirabeau in cash for his aid. 

Clubs, formed all over France, received direc- 
tion from Paris clubs. 

In the south the sale of church property caused 
disturbances. In the east an insurrection received 
bloody suppression at Nancy (August 31, 1791). 

Bishops and curates were to be elected by the 
people as in the primitive church. Benefices had 
been very unequal. This was to be corrected. 
Many bishops opposed it. Their submission to 
the foreign power of Rome wounded French pride 
and patriotism. The king asked the pope's con- 
sent to the changes. The pope did not answer 
promptly. Then he referred it to the clergy.* 

The Assembly decreed that the clergy take the 
oath t of allegiance to France. Some of the 
bishops took it, others objected ; they would be 
loyal to Rome ; only partly loyal to France. 

* Thiers, Vol. I. p. 136. 

t " To be faithful to the nation, the law and the king, and to maintain with 
all their power the constitution." 



56 THE world's greatest conflict. 

Anarchy was begun. The bishops talked of 
becoming martyrs. But France was to be the 
martyr. 

The king took the oath to support the constitu- 
tion, July 14, 1790. So did some curates. Those 
who declined were paid salary and allowed to offi- 
ciate in private places. 

Mirabeau, President of the wild Jacobin Club, 
became speaker of the National Assembly (Janu- 
ary 29, 1 791). He was a support to Louis. He 
died April 2, 1791. 

Later, priests who refused the oath and were 
dismissed, opened private chapels. Paris was un- 
friendly to them. The king broke his oath by 
keeping non-juror priests as his private chaplains. 

Princes and nobles were running from France. 
Emigration became the fashion. The fugitives 
expected the foreign powers to speedily bring them 
back. Members of the Assembly, too, ran away. 
Two hundred deputies asked for passports. The 
public demanded a law against emigration. A 
law was made to dismiss from office any func- 
tionary who should not reside in the place of his 
functions. It required the king to remain near 
the Assembly.* These royal and noble runaways 
arranged for a great foreign army to invade 
France. At that time the revolutionists were not 
republicans ; they all were royalists. Mirabeau 
died a royalist. 

* Thiers, Vol. I, p. 139. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 5/ 

It was believed that the king meditated flight. 
The law of April i8, 1791, decreed that the flight 
of the king should be equivalent to his dethrone- 
ment * He tried to go to St. Cloud for a few 
days. It is not six miles from the Tuileries. The 
people would not let him go. After being kept in 
his carriage four hours he re-entered the Tuileries, 
baffled, dispirited, apprehensive. 



XIV. 

THE king decided to escape. But he lacked 
the common sense to do it safely. The 
boy who reads dime novels could have given him 
points. A carriage of enormous size 
was loaded with luggage ; parties of The Royai 
soldiers were placed on the road, sure Runaway, 
to attract attention, sure to indicate June 21, 1791. 
which way the runaway had gone. 
Then foolish king, foolish queen, son and daugh- 
ter, a governess, and the king's sister slipped 
away — six well-known persons secretly escaping 
together through towns and villages, on a great 
public road ! Surely persons so very foolish are 
unfit for even the most commonplace business. 
The boy prince of six years ought to have known 
better. The lowest peasant would have better 
arranged an escape. Contemplate a pair of such 

* Alison, Vol. I. p. loi. Miguel, Vol. I. pp. 124-25. 



58 THE world's greatest conflict. 

precious fools ruling over a great and grand nation. 
Alas ! for heredity. 

This childish farce continued till Drouet stopped 
the blockheads at Varennes. Louis had an escort ; 
they rallied about him, but as they were drunk, 
they had no more wits than their royal master. 

Louis had not even the small heroism to mount 
and dash on while he might. A French corporal 
would have done it. A private soldier would have 
done it or been condemned as too imbecile for a 
private. A few hours more on horseback would 
have taken Louis to a waiting officer who would 
have guarded him safely beyond the Assembly's 
reach. 

Paris was confused at this news. Louis had 
left a statement of his reasons for deserting — loss 
of powers, and reduction of his annual expenses to 
thirty million francs yearly ! * 

Carried back to Paris, Louis, the deserter, was 
received in silence. 

Desertion to the enemy is a very high military 
crime. It was a military as well as a civil offense, 
for the king was head of the army. 

By his desertion Louis legally abdicated his 
position according to the law of April i8, 1791. 
This action forced the Assembly to take the 
vacated executive power. P'ar better had he 
formally abdicated long before. He had been 

* Precisely the whole sum asked by the Emperor Napoleon for his own 
allowance in 1804. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 59 

king for fifteen long years when the Assembly 
met in 1789. Every year had been a demonstra- 
tion of his inability, had warned him to resign, as 
Louis Philippe resigned in 1848. 

His desertion added energy to the opposition. 
Maret, the fury, was calling for eight hundred 
gibbets on which to hang lovers of order. 



XV. 



A PETITION to depose Louis was exhibited 
in the Champ de Mars. The city commit- 
tees opposed it. Thousands went there to sign. 
Lafayette and the Mayor Bailly pro- 
claimed martial law. The National The 
Guards tried to clear the ground. Fatal Affair of 
The crowd resisted. The Guards J^^y ^7, 1791- 
fired ; twelve persons were killed and 
the place cleared. This fatal interference with 
the sacred right of petition was never forgiven. 
It was bitterly remembered by the wild Jacobins 
against the Girondists and used against order (and 
for it Bailly was later executed on that very spot). 
Under Lafayette's vigorous command and advice 
order seemed once more restored. Of the savage 
mob leaders, Danton was absent ; Maret, the 
frightful, was obliged to hide himself ; Robespierre 
dared not show himself. The Jacobins' brutal 
power was for a short time shaken. The Moder- 



60 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

ates had seceded from the Jacobins and formed 
a new club, the Feuillants. These two clubs were 
now rivals in influencing all the clubs throughout 
France. 

The license of clubs was boundless. Disorder 
was wild. Had Lafayette alone been at the head 
of government all might have been adjusted. But 
nobody could maintain law and order under the 
marplot Louis. 

The Assembly made the new Constitution of 
1 791. The French runaways in Germany tried to 
dissuade Louis from accepting it. They spread 
through Europe their letter promising him for- 
eign assistance ; this was an insult to France that 
only made the many enemies of Louis still more 
bitter. 

The German emperor, Leopold, brother of Louis' 
wife, and the King of Prussia, met and decided to 
prepare to aid Louis against his outraged people. 
But secretly the emperor advised Louis to accept 
the Constitution. Louis accepted it September 
14, 1791. 

It gave Frenchmen equality in the laws ; and 
deputies elected by the people. It was still 
monarchy ; Louis was its head. The revolutionists 
were still monarchists. Louis was allowed thirty 
million francs a year, and extensive powers. 

Religious strife, disorder, bloodshed at Avignon, 
the pope's friends against the new condition, dis- 
turbed the peace. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 6 1 

The National Assembly ended September 30, 
1791. It had established liberty of worship, trial 
by jury ; decreed that trials be public and de- 
fense allowed ; it had abolished torture; arbitrary 
arrests without cause ; exemption of the nobles 
and clergy (two thirds of France) from taxation ; 
relieved the excessive taxes and feudal claims ; 
and had opened to every person a fair chance 
for employment ; equal taxes, equal rights ; com- 
mon suffrage had removed a great number of 
abuses. 

Had Louis been an honest, capable executive, 
all might still have been well. '' His indecision, 
weakness, and half-measures ruined everything," * 
says that lover of arbitrary monarchy, Alison. 

The newly-elected Legislative Assembly came 
in October i, 1791. The National Assembly had 
made its own members ineligible, so the new 
Chamber was of new men. Many were fanatics. 
It divided into two parties, the Right for consti- 
tutional monarchy, the Left for further revolution. 
Of its seven hundred and forty-five members above 
four hundred were lawyers ; many were journa- 
lists ; all were eager to make reputation, to gain 
popularity, to rule. Many were ignorant, all were 
presumptuous. 

Many nobles were still emigrating. More than 
seventy thousand had gone. One thousand nine 

* Alison, Vol. I. p. 3. 



62 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 

hundred officers, all nobles, had deserted.* The 
military preparations of the deserters on the 
Rhine, their violent language and intrigues, exas- 
perated the French people. 

The new Assembly decreed the return of the 
king's brother, Stanislaus Xavier (afterwards Louis 
the Eighteenth) ; it announced that emigrants were 
to be regarded as conspirators, would forfeit reve- 
nue and be punished unless they returned by Jan- 
uary I, 1792. 

Louis signed the decree for his brother's return, 
but he vetoed that concerning the emigrants. 
This veto was exceedingly offensive to the Assem- 
bly and the public. The people gave the epithet 
"Madame Veto" to their despised queen. They 
believed, with justice, that she intrigued with her 
Austrian family against the French. At that 
moment emigrants were organizing a foreign army 
against the French ; they were arranging to bring 
the enemy to Paris. 

In Vendee non-juror priests were accused, **not 
without reason," f of exciting people against the 
Constitution. As they refused to swear "fidelity 
to nation, law, king and Constitution," the Assem- 
bly suspended their salaries, decreed their removal 
from. one place to another, if they incited civil 
war, and forbade their illicit worship. They 
might remove this disability by taking the oath, 

* Republican War Minister, Thiers, Vol. L p. 168. 
t Guizot's History of France, Vol. I, p. 69. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 63 

by adhering to France instead of to the Pope. 
Thus the Assembly in the name of liberty were 
opposing liberty of conscience. Louis vetoed this 
decree. He was himself still breaking the law 
and his oath by keeping non-juror priests in his 
household. 

Jacobin Clubs all over France supported the 
fiery Paris Clubs, that constrained the Assembly 
to pass violent decrees. 

The Left accused Louis of beins^ in leasfue 
with the foreign enemy. The ministers resigned. 
The king took Jacobins into the ministry.* 

The Girondists in the Assembly united with 
the Revolutionists. 

The German emperor demanded f ''redress" 
for German princes for losses in Alsace ; he de- 
manded Avignon for the Pope ; restitution of the 
immense Church estates in Alsace; restitution 
of arbitrary authority to the king with certain 
concessions.^ 

Charged with treason, his queen hated and 
believed to be still Austrian — the people believ- 
ing that she was leading him to betray France — 
the king was constrained to propose war. The 
Assembly accepted the proposal and voted war, 
April 20, 1792. 

The Assembly decreed the exile of the refrac- 



* Narbonne, Dnmouriez, Roland, 
t Hardinburg, Vol. I. pp. 391, 392. 
t Alison, Vol. I. pp. 119-177. 



64 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

tory priests. Louis refused to sanction this order 
of exile. At Avignon Protestants and Catholics 
had assassinated each other. 

The Assembly decreed a camp of twenty thou- 
sand troops ("federates ") near Paris. 

Louis dismissed his Jacobin ministers. He had 
the folly also to turn away from his friends of the 
Right, the Girondists. He was imbecile. P'or 
ten days he hardly spoke.* He sat and sulked. 
His neglected Girondists resented his desertion 
of them. He had a sudden awakening in his 
stupidity. Instigated by the Girondists a great, 
tumultuous crowd came July 20, 1792, to the 
Assembly with petitions. Singing Ca Ira, they 
went also to the Tuileries with petitions to the 
king, asking him to sanction the recalcitrant 
priest and emigrant decrees that he had vetoed, 
and recall the ''patriot" ministers. Louis took 
from a pike a red Revolution cap and put it on 
his head. He did not grant the petitions, though 
the crowd filled his palace for hours. 

Louis the Fourteenth and Louis the Fifteenth 
had by their bad conduct caused the French to 
hate kings. Louis the Sixteenth, during the 
eighteen long years that he had been king, from 
1774, had done nothing to dispel, and very much 
to immensely and justly increase that hatred. 
He was incapable, assuming, irresolute ; that he 
was less dissolute than these two predecessors 

* Alison, Vol. I. 122. Thiers; Mad. Campan. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 65 

is because nature vetoed it, not because of his 
own goodness. Morally, he was not good. This 
mob visit to the king, and his lack of tact and 
common foresight to have precluded its possibil- 
ity, excited more strongly all France against a king 
whose lack of common sense excited contempt. 
When he plainly saw that he was incapable, and 
confessed it by desertion, in 1791, why did not 
he let *' Monsieur " his elder brother, who had 
ability, and who had no Austrian wife, become 
regent ? This neglect was a fatal error. 

Lafayette prepared the way for Louis to escape, 
but the queen by whim opposed it because she 
disliked Lafayette, and Louis was cool to this man 
who would save him. 

Lafayette appealed to the Assembly for reign 
of law instead of reign of clubs. But the Giron- 
dists, who had once defended order and justice, 
were provoked by the king and queen, and had 
joined the violent Commune. Even Lafayette 
was accused by them. He tried to get the mob 
leaders punished, but failed. 

All parties had been Royalists. But now arose 
popular demand for the dethronement of so worth- 
less a king. Should these two semi-imbeciles head 
the defense of France against foreign armies 
whom both king and queen desired } Should 
France have an Austrian queen, who now had 
great influence over the king, when France would 
be at war with Austria.? This Austrian queen 



66 THE world's greatest conflict. 

was in correspondence with the enemy ! Every 
body said this ; and it was true. 

Then came a proclamation from the Duke of 
Brunswick, who commanded the foreign invaders. 
Its language was extremely cruel, rash, ill-judged, 
offensive — admirably calculated to exasperate the 
French people. It threatened the direst venge- 
ance — death, the destruction of Paris. It alone 
was sufficient to arouse any people to the ardor of 
defense against one capable of threats so atro- 
cious. Dated at Coblentz, July 25, it appeared at 
Paris on the 28th. How came it so quickly } 
It was well known that many friends of the invad- 
ing army were in Paris. 

August 3 Petion, Mayor of Paris, accused Louis 
to the Assembly as aiding the invasion. " His 
name is the signal of discord. . . . We appeal 
to it (the Constitution) in our turn, and ask his de- 
thronement." The Paris Sections supported the 
accusation. There was much reason to believe it 
true. 

The Girondists, who had been his friends until 
he repulsed them, now implored Louis to *' Let 
the sight of the men who surround you invite 
public confidence." 

The Assembly proclaimed "the country in 
danger." These words stirred all France. Local 
authorities enrolled volunteers. Not daring to trust 
Louis, who was not trusty, and whom they feared 
as a traitor, they kept control of these troops. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 67 

Then came the famous Marseilles battalion. 
The Girondists, moderate, able, patriotic, lost con- 
trol of the revolt. Maret, hideous, repulsive, 
depraved by an insane thirst for blood, lived and 
sneaked and schemed apart, a horror even to 
those who used him, yet an exciter to violence 
strongly felt. 



XVI. 

AGAIN the people assembled around the 
Tuileries. The king, as usual, did not 
know what to do. Somebody told him to take 
refuge in the Assembly which he had 
so often insulted. With the hated The Reign of 
queen and his family he did so. But Terror begins 
his Swiss guard, far braver than their August 10, 
puerile master, he left to their fate. 1792. 

They defended his palace till many 
of them were slain. In the midst of their defense 
he sent orders to these brave Swiss to cease firing, 
but he did not withdraw them ; they obeyed, and, 
defenseless, were massacred. 

So contemptible had the king become that, in 
his presence, the Assembly decreed the suspen- 
sion of his powers, and ordered that a national 
convention be called.* They were still Royalists ; 

* Thiers, Vol. I. p. 276. 



68 THE world's greatest conflict. 

they ordered the education of the boy prince-royal. 
But they sent him and his family to the temple. 
The prisons were crowded with nobility and clergy. 
After August lO, of seven hundred and forty-nine 
deputies, but two hundred and eighty-four were 
present, all of them Jacobins.* The majority were 
absent. Lafayette resigned the command of an 
army at Sedan and left France. He was then 
imprisoned by Austria. 

Danton the furious, president of the Cordeliers 
Club, a rival of the Jacobin Clubs, was made 
Minister of Justice. What a misnomer ! 

The " Reign of Terror " began at once, August 
ID, 1792. It lasted till October 26, 1795 — thirty- 
eight and one half months. The Commune had 
come into power. The Commune! — a minority 
frenzied ; a political insanity ; a bloody panic of 
partisanship ; a small fraction only of the French 
people, but maddened to delirium by the wrongs 
France had long endured from king, high clergy 
and nobles ; a fanatical following, exasperated by 
the later conduct of Louis and his queen, his 
brother d'Artois, and by the impending advent 
of a powerful foreign and domestic army whose 
commander had threatened devastation and whose 
avowed purpose was to restore despotism just when 
the people believed France to be emerging from 
it ; this minority made the terrible Reign of Terror 
that dishonors all humanity. Yet even its ex- 

* Von Sybel, Vol. I. p. 315. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 69 

cesses were no worse than the anarchy threatened 
by the Duke of Brunswick's proclamation. 

Longwy fortress was taken by the invaders, 
August 13. A great army of Austrians, Prussians, 
Hessians and emigrant French deserters were 
advancing on Paris. 

August 17. On Brissot's * motion a Revolu- 
tionary tribunal was formed for summary trials, 
elected by the Sections.! A decree ordered non- 
juror priests to leave France within fifteen days, 
or be banished to Guiana. It was charged that 
they aided the common enemy by exciting their 
people. Those who did not go were arrested. 
Danton and the Commune changed their sentence 
to death. The Prussians attacked Verdun. With- 
out and within Paris terror reigned. 

The fiery Danton demanded a law to search 
houses ; to arrest those suspected of aiding the 
approaching enemy. The excitement of danger 
was terrible. The fragmentary Assembly, partly 
Jacobin, while the rest were overawed, voted it. 

August 29, 30 and 31. Shops were closed; 
every one, shut up in his house, waited the terri- 
ble visit of the Commune. Great numbers were 
sent to crowd the prisons — men, women and 
children. 

September 2, 3. Alarm bells were rung, black 
flags were raised. Conspiracy was rumored. 

*A Girondist. 

t Eight judges and eight jurymen. Paris was in forty-eight " Sections." 



'JO THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

Panic ensued, Paris was insane. The Assembly 
decreed death to all who should disobey the city 
powers. This was to prevent resistance ; it was 
murder made easy. The Commune was in power ; 
too powerful for control by the Assembly. Paid 
assassins opened prisons and massacred several 
thousand prisoners. 

Says Alison, ''The small number who perpe- 
trated these murders ... is one of the most 
instructive facts . . . the number of those 
actually engaged in the massacre did not exceed 
three hundred, and twice as many more witnessed 
their proceedings, yet this handful of men gov- 
erned Paris and France with a despotism." * 

The bloody Marat sent couriers with a call to 
all France to follow this atrocious example. At 
Rheims, Caen and Lyons magistrates and priests 
were slain. Prisoners sent from the south were 
murdered at Versailles. 

France was held by Terror. It was neither 
monarchy, republic, nor democracy, but only Ter- 
ror — the many suppressed by a small minority. 

''There were not more than five men in France 
who wished for a republic," said Petion, then 
Mayor of Paris. 

Then Paris and France were stirred to wild en- 
thusiasm by Kellerman's decisive victory at Valmy, 
over the invaders, September 20, 1792. The Rev- 
olution's soldiers had beaten the trained and 

* History of Europe, Vol, I. p. 140. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 7 1 

highly disciplined Prussians ; they had expelled 
the emigrants who were returning in arms against 
the Revolution. 



XVII. 

THE Legislative Assembly was dissolved and 
the National Convention convened Sep- 
tember 21, 1792. 

Two parties existed — the Giron- The 

dists, who desired law and order, and Convention, 
the Jacobins, wild, headstrong furies, 
many of them anarchists, neither republicans nor 
monarchists. 

The contest between the two parties for do- 
minion was fierce and terrible. Robespierre, 
Danton and Marat were Jacobin members of the 
Convention. 

The first day, on motion of a priest, the Conven- 
tion voted abolition of royalty. That day it began 
a new calendar. All citizens were voted equal 
political rights. 

Yet this was not a republic. A real republic is 
constitutional rule of the majority through regular 
forms of law, and only by law. The moment it 
ceases to be this it has ceased to be a republic. 
France before 1848 was never this ; so it was not 
a republic. The Reign of Terror was diametrically 
opposed to a republic, because it was a small 



72 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

minority that ruled, and not by law, but by 
Terror. 

The Jacobins denounced the Girondists as fed- 
eralists, as desiring to form France into twenty- 
three states held together by a federal union. 
This inflamed Paris against them, for Paris 
wished to be the seat of central ruling power. 

The Convention ordered perpetual banishment 
to the traitor emigrants and death to those who 
should return. They had invaded France and 
made war on it ; for this they must perish. 

French troops took Savoy, and the Convention 
annexed it to France. Custine took Mentz. 
Damourier defeated the Austrians at Jemappes, 
November 6, and soon made conquest of Belgium 
from Austria. 



XVIII. 

THE Convention decreed the trial of Louis. 
He was well-treated in prison, as Clery his 
friend has testified.* When Manuel frequently 
asked him if he needed anything. 
The death of Louis always replied, " I have no 
Louis. need." 

Sixteen persons were employed to 
prepare his well-furnished table. 

Louis was defended by able counsel, Malesher- 

* Thiers, Vol. I. p. 340. Clery's statements. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 73 

bes, Tronchet and De Seze. Some of the Giron- 
dists moved to refer the verdict to a vote of the 
people. Robespierre repelled this course as likely 
to cause civil war. 

January 15, 1793. Of 720 members present 
683 voted " guilty " ; not one '' not guilty " ; 37 
refused to vote. Then 281 voted appeal to the 
people ; 423 against it.* 

Later, exactly a majority— 361 out of 721 — 
voted for death unconditionally ; 72 were for death 
after delay ; 286 for detention or banishment. 

January 20, prompt execution was voted — 380 
against 310. On January 21, 1793, the "Son of 
St. Louis" was beheaded. 

He had reigned above eighteen years. His 
wicked predecessor, Louis the Fifteenth, be- 
queathed him France in bad condition. But in 
these eighteen years a wise, able, honest man could 
have remedied the former evils and rendered 
France contented, happy and free from unequal and 
severe burdens. By '' weakness, vacillation, irreso- 
lution," by ill temper, inconstancy, stupidity and pre- 
sumptuous folly Louis the Sixteenth provoked the 
Revolution. "All the measures of Louis," says 
AUson, " conspired to bring it about.f Had Louis 
the Sixteenth resisted manfully, had he used the 
courage, the activity, the resolution of Charles the 
First of England, he would have triumphed."- But 
it was not in Louis' nature to act manfully. 

* Thiers, Vol. I. p. 417- t Alison, H. Rev., Vol. I. p. iii. 



74 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

The very grave charge that Louis had betrayed 
France by inviting the invading armies of Europe 
was too true. In December, 1790, he appealed 
to the German emperor, and to the sovereigns of 
Russia, Sweden, Spain and Prussia, and "sug- 
gested the plan of a congress of the principal pow- 
ers, supported by an armed force, as the means of 
arresting the factions here and establishing a more 
desirable order of things." * These are Louis's 
own words to the Prussian king. Therefore all 
the French blood shed at Valmy was done by his 
treason. Louis and his queen sent secret emissa- 
ries to the Prussian and Austrian rulers,f and to 
England, Yet on the twentieth of April, 1792, 
Louis declared war on Austria for acts which he 
had himself instigated. 



XIX. 

AUSTRIA and Prussia agreed at Pilnitz, 
August 27, 1791, to prepare armies to assail 
the French. Several armies were to form on the 
frontiers. 
The Allies. Belgium had revolted against Aus- 

tria in 1789 and been suppressed by 
force. France saw the necessity for defensive 
action. In April, 1792, it sent an army to enter 

* Louis to Frederick William the Second, Hardenburg, Vol. I. pp. 94, 95. 
t Alison, Vol. L p. 173. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 75 

Belgium. It failed ; the French soldiers were not 
ready to fight. 

The allied armies, Austrian, Prussian, German 
and French emigrant, under the Duke of Bruns- 
wick, brother-in-law of George the Third of Eng- 
land, had invaded France July 30, 1792. Sig- 
nally defeated at Valmy, September 20, they 
retreated from France. The French, following 
up this victory, won the battle of Jemmapes, 
November 6, and soon rescued Belgium from 
Austria and the German emperor who had begun 
the war. 

The French, received with enthusiasm, opened 
the fine river Scheldt to commerce, to the great 
joy of Antwerp. This river had been closed 
for years because Antwerp was a commercial 
rival of the Dutch towns. The French seques- 
tered the public and church property and made 
requisitions to support the French liberating army. 
Its demands were severe. Belgium nobles and 
clergy opposed the French. France annexed some 
small districts taken from Germany. The people 
of Savoy formed a great club to spread liberty 
and equality ; they successfully revolted against 
the king of Sardinia, abolished royalty, tithes 
and exclusive privileges, and asked France to 
annex Savoy. France compUed. It also annexed 
Nice and Monaco. War resulted between the 
French and the King of Sardinia. 

Geneva wished to be free from dictation of 



76 THE world's greatest conflict. 

Berne. France aided it ; she reversed the op- 
pression put on Geneva by Louis in 1782. 

November 19, 1792, the French Convention 
decreed " Fraternity and assistance to all people 
who wish to recover their liberty." * 

December 15, 1792, it decreed that in all coun- 
tries occupied by French armies, imposts, tithes, 
feudal right, personal servitude shall cease ; that 
royal, public and church property shall be placed 
under French safeguard ; that the people's sover- 
eignty and liberty should be established. 

Five London societies sent friendly addresses to 
the French Convention. 



XX. 

I HAVE carefully enumerated these events 
because these, and the Tuileries mob of 
August 10, 1792, the September massacre, the 
suspension of the king, his execution, 
The and the fact of the French Revolu- 

great war tiou itsclf, the inflammatory language 
begins. of the Frcuch and their belief that 

they were missionaries of revolution, 
are the causes why Great Britain, in February, 
1793, entered on that long and terrible war that, 



*" This imprudent decree, passed in a moment of enthusiasm, was not con- 
strued, as Pitt asserted, into an invitation to all nations to rebel." — Thiers, 
Vol. I. p. 433. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 7/ 

with two intermissions, was not to terminate till 
more than twenty-two years later. 

England prepared to declare war, unless the 
French would "withdraw their arms within 
French territory ; abandon their conquests," and 
make pledges not to foment troubles.* 

Yet at this time, when England wanted France 
to abandon its conquests, England had itself re- 
cently been augmented in India, and Russia, 
Austria and Prussia had divided Poland. To 
preserve the old "balance of power" France 
needed additions. 

Sir Walter Scott and other British writers have 
pronounced these causes as insufficient to justify 
England in going to war. English militia were 
called out. After angry discussion with the 
French ambassador Pitt's ministry ordered him 
to leave England within eight days. Vessels 
laden with grain for France were stopped, " prepa- 
rations and proclamations announced impending 
war." t 

The Convention declared war on England, 
Holland and Spain February 3, 1793. 

Ten days after the king's death, the rulers of 
Britain, Spain, Holland and Russia began war on 
the French. Prussia, Austria, Hesse and Sardinia 
were already at war with France. 

* Lord Grenville's dispatch. t Thiers, Vol. L p. 433. 



yS THE world's greatest conflict. 



XXI. 

THE death of Louis in 1793 brought the Jaco- 
bins to the summit of power. The Giron- 
dists had invented the dread Revolutionary 
tribunal, the Jacobins revised and 

The Jacobin . , . ^ ... 

rendered it tar more terrible. 

tyranny. . r -n> ^ ^' 

Two committees — that of Public 
Safety and that of General Safety, were formed ; 
Robespierre, Danton, and Murat, the bloody trio, 
ruled by violence. Hot-headed Jacobins were 
sent to watch the armies and the generals, and 
to domineer tyrannically over provinces. 

The Girondists opposed the Terror ; they ac- 
cused Marat and had him arrested, but his accom- 
plices on the bloody Terror tribunal acquitted 
him. Strife between Jacobins and Girondists be- 
came very fierce, very deadly. The Girondists 
were accused of being Federalists, which meant 
that they favored local against central govern- 
ment, more power in provinces, less power in 
Paris. The violence depressed trade and work 
and brought severe want. Assignats had fallen 
two thirds in value, prices were high. The Con- 
vention ordered low prices ; scarcity continued, 
famine came. Amid bread riots, and food rob- 
beries, and lack of money, the Convention made 
forced loans. Civil war, both religious and politi- 
cal, raged in Catholic Vendee and Brittany. The 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 79 

insurgents defeated the National Army in battle 
at Fontenay, May 24. The French under Dumou- 
riez and Louis PhilHpe lost the battle of Neer- 
winden, March 18, and with it Belgium. Austria 
recovered it. Foreign and civil war at once and 
both disastrous ! France called out three hundred 
thousand men.* Dumouriez determined to end 
the tyranny of the Convention, and establish the 
Constitution of 1791 ; he made armistice with the 
Austrians, and surrendered to them the deputies 
sent to remove him. But his army refused to 
obey him. ~ Then he escaped with Louis Philippe 
(afterwards king) to the Austrians. f Serious but 
indecisive fighting occurred on the Belgic and 
Spanish frontiers. 

The Paris mob now threatened the Jacobins ; 
they wanted food. The Convention decreed judges 
and jury for Danton's extra tribunal of summary 
trial without appeal ; levied a large tax on the rich 
to support the war ; sent two deputies to control 
each of the eighty-four departments. 

A riot, organized by Hebert, Marat, Danton and 
Robespierre began May 31. Twenty-two Giron- 
dist deputies had been denounced. The Paris 
Commune hated them, and they were expelled. 
All parties were terribly embittered ; the Girondists 
had to fly for their lives to Caen. Robespierre 
was chief of Jacobins and Commune. The Jac- 
obins were in power from June 2, 1793, till July 

* Thiers, Vol. IV. pp. 13, 14. t Koch. 



8o THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

28, 1794. The Girondists had tried to stop the 
terrible violence. 

In April, 1793, the Convention resolved that it 
would not intermeddle with governments of other 
nations, nor permit them to meddle with French 
internal affairs.* The same declaration was put 
into the Jacobin Constitution of August 10, 1793. t 

Marat, ill at his home — July 14, 1793 — was in 
his bath, making lists of intended victims. Here 
he was killed by the girl Charlotte Corday. But 
the Jacobins regarded him as a martyr. 

The enemies of the Girondists succeeded in out- 
lawing them. Now the Jacobins and the Com- 
mune ruled alone. They adopted a new Jacobin 
constitution without much discussion, an execu- 
tive council of twenty-four persons, a Legislature 
for one year, but it died at once. 

August 2, 1793, on Danton's motion was created 
the new Revolutionary Despotism, the new 
Committee of Public Safety. Summary tribunals 
were hard at work condemning those accused. 
Danton, chief of the Cordeliers, a bloody society, 
was for a time in the lead. April 5, 1793, he had 
a Commune army formed, chosen in towns from 
the poorer class, to fight at home. A frightful law 
against suspected persons caused horrors. The 
Commune army dragged around guillotines, and 
used them. Business men and women were per- 
secuted. Robespierre suspected Danton. The 

* Decree, April i6, 1793. t Article, 119, 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 8 1 

new Constitution was accepted by the primary as- 
semblies June 24, but he suspended it August 28 
and declared the continuance of revolution. " They 
warred on opinions ; harassed political conscience, 
stirred up every passion," said Barrere, a member. 

Seventy-four deputies who protested against the 
revolt of May 31, were arrested; twenty-one were 
outlawed ; thirty-nine were cited for trial by the 
bloody tribunal. The furies sent to execution 
twenty-two Girondist deputies because they tried 
to obstruct the frightful excesses. The late queen, 
the Duke of Orleans, Brissot, and many others, 
great figures in France, and obscure persons alike 
were guillotined. Besides these horrors war was 
outside and within France. Everywhere was 
terror, cruelty. Many bloody men were in turn 
beheaded. Some of the victims were guilty of 
frightful crimes. They took the Commune cal- 
endar, September 22, 1793. Hebert and Chau- 
mette, two Commune chiefs, obtained a decree to 
abolish Christianity November 10, 1793, and 
established the worship of Reason. Some high 
clergy apostatized. 

In the west of France, Royalist and Catholic, 
the " Vendean " war raged. After the success 
at the battle of Saumur, June 9, 1793, all the Loire 
towns but Nantes declared for royalty. One hun- 
dred thousand Vendeans, men, women and chil- 
dren, crossed the Loire, after the royalist defeat at 
Chatillon, eager to reach the coast where they 



82 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 

expected English supplies. Several battles oc- 
curred. " The Commune deputy Carrier covered 
the whole Loire country with slaughter and ex- 
erted his ingenuity to invent new methods of 
massacre."* He drowned many, even children. 

Bordeau, Lyons, Marseilles and Toulon declared 
against the bloody rule. Bordeau was speedily 
subdued August 25, 1793. Gen. Carteaux re- 
took Marseilles by aid of its populace. Toulon 
proclaimed Louis the Seventeenth August 29, 
1793, and accepted the protection of the British 
and Spanish fleets lying here. 

Lyons vigorously resisted. It was taken. Atro- 
cious barbarities ensued. The convention ordered 
the city's finest buildings demolished. 

Toulon was retaken by assault. Here Napoleon 
Bonaparte first received notice. The British 
admiral carried off or destroyed the fine French 
fleet at Toulon. 

November 10, 1793, Paris and the Convention 
celebrated the " Feast of Reason " at Notre Dame. 
An actress represented the Goddess of Reason. 
It was also done in other churches — a Commune 
insanity. 

* Schoell's Koch, Vol. II. p. 153. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 83 



XXII. 

THE Revolution was now three parties : (i.) 
The Committee of Pubhc Safety under 
Robespierre supported by the Jacobins, ruled 
absolutely. (2.) Hebert, Chaumette, 
Clootzand the Commune, violent and "Vive Robe- 
of contemptible character. (3.) I)an- spierrei — 
ton, Desmoulins, Herault and others a bas Robe- 
who feared the extravagant fury of spierre!" 
Robespierre and his villains. 

Robespierre's party united with the Danton 
party to send Hebert, Chaumette and some of 
their friends to execution March 24, 1794. Then 
Robespierre turned on the other party and ex- 
ecuted Danton, Desmoulins and Herault twelve 
days later (April 5). Now Robespierre, renowned 
as the " Incorruptible," famous for virtue held his 
bloody reign. 

Danton had unchained fiery passions ; Robe- 
spierre set himself to enslave these passions. 

The Convention voted without discussion what- 
ever the Jacobin leader demanded. 

Robespierre abolished the worship of Reason ; he 
proclaimed the existence of the Supreme Being 
and of immortality and duty, by extraordinary 
ceremony (June 8, 1794), with himself, the bloody 
tyrant, for its leading supporter and high priest. 



84 THE world's greatest conflict. 

Monsters such as St. Just, Couthon, Bariere and 
Collet urged greater celerity in condemning ; no 
more delay ; no more witnesses ; haste. Even 
the hardened Convention recoiled at this ; but 
Robespierre insisted ; they decreed it ; there was 
an enthusiasm for bloodshed ; a wild frenzy for 
injustice; a madness for atrocity. Fouquier-Tin- 
ville huddled together a crowd for condemnation 
by wholesale.. It became necessary to restrict him 
to sixty victims a day. 

In forty-eight days — June lo to July 27, 1794 — 
two thousand two hundred and eighty-five were 
executed ! St. Just proposed that Robespierre be 
dictator. Robespierre denounced some of the depu- 
ties and certain of the Committee of Public Safety. 
This roused the till now servile Convention to 
self-defense. It decreed arrest of Robespierre, 
Couthon and St. Just. They were sent to prison. 
The jailers refused to receive them. Again they 
were free ; they stood at the head of the assem- 
bling mob. All Paris rushed into the streets. The 
alarm bells rang, the barriers were closed. Com- 
mander Herniot ordered the soldiers to fire on the 
Convention. It had just decreed him outlawed 
and named Barras commandant. The gunners did 
not fire. Men left their guns when they heard 
the decree that outlawed the Commune, whose 
head was Robespierre. 

Robespierre saw himself lost ; he tried suicide, 
but, only broke his jaw with a bullet. He was 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 85 

promptly guillotined with St. Just and twenty-two 
more of his principal villains, July 28, 1794. 
Eighty-three more were executed within two days. 
Many prisoners were released, but cruelty contin- 
ued till the end of the Convention. 

Some of the men who had pushed Robespierre 
to his greatest excesses, and taken part in his 
crimes, aided to overthrow him to save themselves. 

The public rejoiced at his fall. The Conven- 
tion struck a blow to the Commune by stopping 
the forty cents a day, the pay of members present. 
This sent many idlers and tramps away from 
clubs to seek work. 

The Convention suppressed the Jacobin club. 
It restored sixty-three imprisoned deputies, twenty- 
seven banished and four others. 

It allowed workmen refugees to return. In 
Alsace alone it is said forty thousand work people 
who had fled the Terror returned. The country 
had been frightfully desolated. The villain Car- 
rier of Nantes was but one of many tyrants of 
provinces. He said, " It forms part of the project 
and is the orders of the Convention to lay waste 
all means of subsistence, all provisions and for- 
age, to deliver to flames all buildings, and exter- 
minate all inhabitants " of the Loire district. The 
distress was great ; great districts were devastated. 

The cruel Mountain Jacobins accused before 
the Convention incited mob revolt, April i, 1795. 
Crowds of men, women and children entered the 



S6 THE world's greatest conflict. 

Convention, shouting for bread and for liberty of 
these cut-throats. But this mob failed of its pur- 
pose. Billaud-Varennes, Collet d'Herbois and 
Barrere, bloody chiefs, were sent to prison and 
later exiled.* 

Again, May 20, an insurrection ; again women 
invaded and insulted the Convention. Behind the 
women came rioters shouting for bread and for 
the Constitution of 1793. The Mountain allowed 
the rioters to vote with them in the Convention 
to re-establish Jacobin power. National Guards 
arrived and dispersed the rioters. The Conven- 
tion ordered arrest of the riotous Mountain, and 
many of these savage men were tried and executed 
or banished. 



XXIII. 

IN 1793-94 all Europe except Turkey, Denmark, 
Sweden, Portugal and Switzerland made war 
on France. The French raised great armies. In 
1794 General Jourdan took Charleroi, 
France defeated the Austrians at Fleurus 

against all (Juue 26), and conqucrcd Belgium 
Europe. from Austria. 

In the southwest the French had 
beaten the Spanish, entered Spain, and beaten 
them again. 

* Mountain, the extremely violent party, who sat on high seats. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 8/ 

The British took most of the French colonies. 
The British Admiral Howe defeated the French 
fleet off Ushant, June i. 

Favored by the cold winter of 1795, that per- 
mitted the crossing of rivers on the ice, and aided 
by the Dutch patriots, the French General Pichegru 
occupied Holland. (January, 1795.) The Dutch 
patriots re-established their old Republic ; the 
Prince of Orange (the Stadtholder) fled to Eng- 
land, and his restored republic allied itself with 
France May 16, 1795, and gave the French one 
million florins. 

The Vendeans having lost some of their leaders 
made peace with the Convention, February 17, 
1795. But the wicked Convention ordered Cor- 
martin, the Chouan chief, to be shot. This 
opened a new revolt. The English ministry tried 
to help the insurgents, landed some French at 
Oueberon (June 18), but, badly managed, they 
were defeated. Five hundred and sixty rebels 
were taken, and they were shot by Tallien's order. 

The peace of Basle, April 15, 1795, ended war 
with Prussia and Spain. Tuscany and Hesse too 
made peace. 



88 THE world's greatest conflict. 



XXIV. 

THE Convention framed a new constitution, 
August, 1795. This established a council 
of five hundred, elected by assemblies chosen 
by the voters, to originate laws ; a Council of 

Ancients with power of veto ; and an 
Famous Exccutive Directory of five members. 
Revolt of the one to be replaced each year. 
Sections. The Convention, to keep in power 

and escape vengeance for their bloody 
acts, decreed that two thirds of the new legisla- 
ture must be taken from its members. Both 
constitution and decree were to be voted on to- 
gether as one proposition. This coupling excited 
great discontent. Paris was terribly agitated. It 
wished to accept the constitution and reject the 
decree. It wanted riddance of the members of the 
convention. The departments of France accepted 
both ; so did the army. The convention brought 
five thousand regular soldiers ; they annoyed the 
citizens' meetings ; they summoned the National 
Guards of Section Lepelletier to surrender its 
arms. The Section refused. Resistance was 
appearing. The National Guard assembled Octo- 
ber 4. General Menon was ordered to disperse 
it, but failed. At eleven at night the convention 
gave Barras full powers. He put in command 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 89 

General Napoleon Bonaparte. Lieutenant Joachim 
Murat brought up the fifty cannon. 

Early October 5, the Sections and National 
Guard appeared, thirty thousand strong. It had 
been reorganized to contain only well-to-do men. 
Bonaparte had placed the regulars around the 
Tuileries. The Sections began firing on the 
regulars near the church of St. Roch. The artil- 
lery replied with rapid discharges of grape-shot. 
The Sections made a sharp fight, but the artillery 
cleared them in a few minutes. On the opposite 
side of the Tuileries the Sections carried the 
bridge Neuf, and pressed on ; at twenty yards 
Bonaparte gave them a heavy fire of grape. They 
stood a few minutes, did not charge, lost confi- 
dence, and victory was decided against them. 

It was the last insurrection of the people of 
Paris till a generation later, in 1830. The revo- 
lutions between 1795 and 1830 were not the work 
of Paris or the mob or people. These insurgents 
of 1795 were not the rabble. It was against the 
best men of Paris that Bonaparte made his first 
victory, this in front of St. Roch. 

Few severe punishments followed. The Con- 
vention soon declared amnesty. 

October 26, 1795, the Convention ended. It 
had chosen one hundred and four members of the 
new councils. 

Paper assignats were 18,933,500,000 francs. 
France tried to borrow 600,000,000 in specie, 



90 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

but without success. France was bankrupt for 
39,000,000,000 francs ! Two other kinds of paper 
were tried. Both failed. Trade was done in 
barter. Heavy taxes became imperative. 

In the south many Jacobins were massacred. 
Furious scenes of fire and carnage occurred. It 
was the reaction ; France was on the road to 
consolidated despotism. 



XXV. 

THE French offered liberation to Italy. Italy 
was not united in feeling. No two States 
had the same needs, wishes or inclinations. Jeal- 
ous of each other, they were bound 
Italy after to local habits, capriccs, dislikes. 
1789— Class differences were still more dis- 

Napoieon. couraging. Thinkers were at strife 
against aristocracy and the feudalism 
of Naples. Many nobles held revolutionary sen- 
timents. They did not follow the example of the 
French noblesse by emigrating, and few bloody 
excesses stain the Italians of the Italian Revolu- 
tion of 1 796-1 802, except the massacres of Verona, 
April 17, 1797, and of Naples of 1799.* 

It was the middle and higher classes that gave 
the impulse to reform. The rural lower class, 
victims of abuses both church and secular, gave 

*Spaulding's Italy, Vol. III. pp. 16-19. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. QI 

only blind, sluggish submission to the revolution, 
and sometimes turned fitfully against those who 
sought to lighten their burdens.* 

The numerous clergy, with few exceptions, were 
hostile to changes. The thinkers favored reform. f 

In religion, Italy had many quiet disbelievers ; 
few worshipers of the Goddess of Reason. They 
doubted dogmas without disclaiming faith. The 
ignorant crippled liberty.^ In the south, many 
nobles and a few of the middle class aided their 
hindering efforts. 

Queen Caroline of Naples was a daughter of the 
late Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. Her 
husband. King Ferdinand, a weak and wicked 
prince, was completely under her influence. § She 
and her favorite, Acton, ruled the kingdom. 
Ferdinand was a brother of the depraved king, 
Charles the Fourth of Spain, and son of Charles 
the Third of Spain and Naples. || The Govern- 
ment imposed extra taxes, robbed the banks of 
deposits, set spies on men of liberal views, organ- 
ized arbitrary commissions to try political cases, 
excluded foreign books and newspapers, and robbed 
the churches of property for use of Government.^ 
In the courts of Naples and Sicily plots were dis- 
covered, torture used to compel confession of 
guilt, and plotters executed. 



* Spaulding's Italy, Vol. III. t Ibid. % Ibid. 

§ Chambers' Cyclopaedia, Vol. V. p. 785. II Ibid. 

IT Botta, Vol. I. p. 293 ; Coletta, Vol. III. 



92 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, became Ger- 
man Emperor (Austrian) in 1790. In 1791 Tuscan 
peasants, prompted by priests, clamored for revival 
of religious abuses in forms and societies that 
Leopold had abolished as superstitious and hurtful. 
Yet in his reign he had advocated reform in Church 
and State, established a new criminal code and 
penitentiaries, abolished the Inquisition and the 
death penalty, equalized the land tax, favored 
free trade, and founded schools and almshouses.* 

But Ferdinand, Duke of Parma, introduced the 
odious inquisition in Parma. 

September 18, 1792, the French National 
Assembly made war on Victor Amadeus the 
Third, king of Sardinia (Piedmont). His people 
did not wish to fight for him, so in two weeks 
the French troops held Savoy and Nice. In 1793 
they seized the mountain passes in Piedmont. 

In January, 1793, the Roman populace stoned 
the French Republican agent to death. 

The French were expelled from Italy in 1795, 
but their victory of Loano, November 24, gave 
them again a foothold. Bonaparte began the 
Italian campaign of 1796 by marching quickly 
down the Alps, gained the victories of Montenotte 
over Austrians, of Melessimo over Italians, and 
of Dego over Austrians (April 12, 13 and 14) — 
three victories in three days ! And a week later 
another at Mondovi. Piedmont's king accepted an 

* Chambers' Cyclopedia, Vol. VIII. p. 814. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 93 

armistice, April 27, and peace, May 15. He ceded 
Savoy and Nice, gave French armies free passage 
through Piedmont, and allowed them to occupy 
his fortresses of Coni, Allessandra and Tortoni. 
Paris was astonished. 

He put into the treaty Piedmont's consent for 
him to cross the Po at Valentia. The Austrians 
watched for him there, but he crossed at Placentia. 
He entered Parma, and compelled its defenceless 
duke to give him one thousand six hundred 
horses, two million francs, great army supplies, and 
twenty of Parma's finest paintings. 

May 10. Then Bonaparte marched on Milan. 
At Lodi bridge sixteen thousand Austrians met 
him. Twenty cannon defended the bridge. Bona- 
parte formed six thousand grenadiers in solid 
column behind buildings. His cannon opened on 
the Austrians. Soon as he saw their fire slacken, 
his six thousand grenadiers suddenly appeared, 
charged across the bridge, took the cannon, and 
drove the Austrians. 

He entered Milan in triumph. May 15. The 
Milanese were transported with joy ; they believed 
they saw the regenerator of Italy. But he de- 
manded twenty million francs from that one city, 
and ten million francs with twenty of his best 
paintings from the Duke of Modena. He made 
great requisitions for horses and food, for which 
he paid nothing or almost worthless paper money. 
He had begun his terrible system of making war 



94 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

support war, that soon impoverished Europe. 
France teemed with men ; it lacked money ; revo- 
lutionary violence had destroyed its prosperity. 

The Directory became afraid of him ; it ordered 
that Kellermann command in North Italy and 
Bonaparte march on Rome and Naples. Napoleon 
instantly resigned. He saw that to divide the 
army would allow the Austrians to beat both 
halves. The Directory reinstated him. 

The Lombards did not regard themselves as 
conquered ; they were offended by the great de- 
mands of the French. But Republican clubs 
were everywhere founded. This aroused the lower 
class and the ignorant monks. At Pavia they rose 
and expelled the French. Napoleon hastened 
there, retook the town, gave it up to plunder, 
shot the magistrates and leaders, and killed great 
numbers of peasants.* It was cruel. 

He moved against the Pope's States, seized 
Bologna and Ferarra, and granted the Pope armis- 
tice on his furnishing great war supplies, paying 
twenty million francs and one hundred of the 
finest works of art to adorn Paris. f He sent 
Murat into neutral Tuscany to commit atrocious 
robbery of British merchants at Leghorn — a 
crime against the Law of Nations — and sold 
their goods for about twelve million francs. This 
was simply crime. Some Italian villages J were 

* Alison, Vol. I. p. 405-407. ^ Ibid. J Brescia, Lago. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 95 

burned and peasants in great number murdered 
by his orders and by his officers. 

A new Austrian army came to Italy and drove 
Bonaparte from the siege of Mantua. But he 
defeated the Austrian enemy at Castiglione and 
Medola. Still again the Austrians approached 
Mantua. Bonaparte beat them in several battles 
and drove them into Mantua fortress. 

Naples, Genoa and Parma then made peace with 
France. Two more Austrian armies entered 
Italy, but Bonaparte defeated one at Arcole 
(November 17), and the other at Rivoli (November 
21). Nearly all Italy was in Bonaparte's power. 
Mantua surrendered with eighteen thousand Aus- 
trians and five hundred cannon. Bonaparte broke 
his truce and advanced towards Rome, took 
Ancona, and compelled the Pope to purchase 
peace by relinquishing Bologna, Ferrara and 
Romagna and paying a great sum. 

In Corsica Paoli arrano;ed a constitution which 
acknowledged George the Third of England. 

P'erdinand, Grand Duke of Tuscany, was the 
first sovereign to recognize the French Republic. 
He made a treaty with it in February, 1795, and 
assumed neutrality. 

Venice feared Austria and hated Paris democ- 
racy. Genoa feared it might lose its commerce. 
Austrian Lombardy, dissatisfied with the public 
burdens and insolence of Austrian officials, desired 
a change. 



96 THE world's greatest conflict. 



XXVI. 

LOMBARDY wished to be an independent 
republic. So did the eastern papal States. 
The French Directory hesitated, 

Reggio was in revolt against its 
Italy before old government. 

1800. Modena was uneasy, Bonaparte 

charged its duke with violating neu- 
trality, deposed him, and declared Modena and 
Reggio free. 

At Bonaparte's instigation deputies chosen by 
the lawyers, landholders and merchants erected 
Modena, Reggio, Papal Bologna, Ferrara and 
Mirandola — all the country between the Po and 
Rome — into the Cispadine Republic in 1796; 
that north of the Po was made the Transpadane 
Republic, 

In February, 1797, Bonaparte defeated the 
Papal troops at Tolentino. He compelled the Pope 
to cede all claim to Bologna, Ferrara and Romagna 
to the Cispadine Republic, to give Avignon to 
France, to pay large sums to redeem the other 
Papal provinces, and to send to Paris one hundred 
works of art. 

Bonaparte pressed the war on towards the heart 
of Austria. When he had reached within twenty- 
five leagues of Vienna, Austria yielded and agreed 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. cyj 

to the preliminaries of the *' Peace of Leoben," 
April 1 8, 1797. 

Austria gave up the Netherlands (Belgium) to 
France, which thus gained the Rhine as its 
frontier. 

Austria renounced Lombardy and agreed to 
acknowledge the Cispadine Republic. 

But, with Bonaparte's aid, Austria robbed 
Venice of its mainland provinces, Illyria, Istria, 
and Upper Italy west to the Oglio. These 
Venetian territories were already in the republican 
revolt. But Bonaparte left them to the hard fate 
of Austrian rule. Had Bonaparte been as willing 
to part with Illyria in 181 3, it might have saved 
him his throne. 

At Verona a mob, headed by a few nobles and 
clergy, assaulted the French. A massacre occurred 
April 17, 1797. The French gave it a bloody 
suppression, April 20. 

In a disturbance at Venice several French 
privateersmen were killed. So Bonaparte declared 
war on Venice. He compelled the Venetian 
Grand Council to decree its own dissolution, May 
12, 1797, by a vote of five hundred and twelve to 
twenty. A tumult at once arose in the streets. 
It was suppressed, and May 16 a treaty was 
signed at Milan between France and the new 
Venetian Republic, and Venice, ostensibly at its 
own request, was garrisoned by French troops. 
When asked to procure ratification of the treaty, 



98 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

Bonaparte reminded the Council that it had prior 
to the treaty deprived itself of all power by its 
own vote to dissolve the Council, that the treaty 
was null, and that France would decide what to 
do with Venice.* 

Bonaparte united the Cispadine and Transpadane 
republics and formed thus the Cisalpine Republic, 
which embraced Lombardy, Mantua, Bergime, 
Brescia, Cremona, Verona and Rovigo, the duchy 
of Modena, the principality of Massa and Carrara, 
and the legations of Bologna, Ferrara and Ro- 
magna, with sixteen thousand square miles, and 
three million five hundred thousand inhabitants.f 
Bonaparte proclaimed that France had obtained 
by conquest the Austrian-Italian States, and pro- 
nounced the new state independent. 

All natives twenty-one years old, except vaga- 
bonds, might be citizens. It had an executive of 
five Directors, a law-making Council of one hun- 
dred and sixty, and a Senate of eighty members. 
All the original members were appointed by 
Bonaparte. Milan was its capital. Its army was 
twenty thousand French troops, paid by Italy. 
In 1798 an alliance offensive and defensive was 
made with France. 

The Cisalpine Republic was dissolved in 1799 
by the Austrian and Russian victories over the 
French and Italians, but was restored after the 

*Dam, Histoire de Venise, Tome V. ; Botta, Vol. II. 225-320. 
t Chambers's C>'clopsdia, Cisalpine. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 99 

victory of Marengo of June 14, 1800, by Bonaparte, 
its territory increased, its constitution modified, 
and the name of the "Italian Republic" was given 
it in 1802. 

In Genoa, June, 1797, democracy was recog- 
nized, and a provisional government given it by 
Bonaparte. In September, 1797, many armed 
peasants opposed to democracy and the new order 
of affairs, attacked the city. They were beaten 
with great slaughter, by the French and the 
militia.* December 2, 1797, the people approved 
a constitution like the Cisalpine, and Genoa 
became the Ligurian Republic! 

In 1796 French armies under Jourdan and 
Moreau invaded Germany and laid immense con- 
tributions or robberies. Moreau reached Bavaria, 
but the Austrians made a brilliant campaign ; they 
beat Jourdan at Amberg August 24 and at Wents- 
burg September 3 and sent both French armies 
hastening back to France. The British had taken 
most French foreign islands. The French fleets 
were blockaded, destitute. Political violence that 
destroyed French prosperity had ruined its navy 
by loss of means. 

By treaty of St. Ildefonso August 19, 1796, 
Spain and France agreed to assist each other in 
case of attack, with twenty-four thousand troops, 
thirty ships of the line and six frigates. 

* Chambers's Cyclopsedia. tSpaulding, Vol. IIL pp. 28-30. 



100 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

Ireland was threatened with a French invasion, 
but a storm dispersed the expedition. 

France had acquired Belgium, Savoy and Nice 
and its armies held Holland and Northern Italy, 
when Pitt sent an envoy with the British offer of 
recognition, peace and restoration of the French 
colonies, on condition that France give Belgium 
to Austria ; Holland to the Prince of Orange whom 
the Dutch patriots had driven away ; and aban- 
doned all the rich conquests in Italy — proposals of 
massive absurdity. Their acceptance would have 
overturned any French government. Their stu- 
pidity was eminently worthy of George the Third. 

Corsica revolted from the British in 1796 and 
formed a democratic government. 

The naval events of 1796 were the British fleet 
mutinies of the Channel and Nore, and the two 
great British victories of St. Vincent over the 
Spanish fleet and Camperdown over the Dutch, 
both allies of France. 

In Paris the Communist conspiracy of Babeuf 
to overthrow the Directory and make equality of 
property, was discovered and suppressed. Strong 
royalist reaction appeared. Many emigrants and 
priests came back. The election for the yearly 
third of the councils went against the Directory. 

The Directory assembled troops, arrested Royal- 
ists deputies (September 3, 1797), annulled elec- 
tions of forty-eight deputies, and left their places 
vacant. They exiled to Guiana sixteen leaders. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. lOI 

They dismissed many judges, abolished juries, 
banished nobles and priests. The emigrants fled 
anew. Bonaparte had aided this aggression. 



XXVII. 

DECEMBER, 1797, a riot occurred in Rome. 
The French general, Duphot, was shot on 
the French ambassador's staircase. Papal soldiers 
and French partisans were quarreling. 

In February, 1798, Berthier, with The Republics 
a French army, occupied Rome and of itaiy. 
demanded that Pius the Ninth resign 
the temporal sovereignty, remain universal bishop 
and receive a great pension. 

The Pope refused. He was conducted to Tus- 
cany, and thence to France a prisoner. A revolt 
was quelled by the French with bloodshed. 

French soldiers, '' defrauded of their pay, and dis- 
gusted by the rapine of their superior officers," 
mutinied at Rome and Mantau ; General Massena, 
said to be the worst offender, resigned. 

March 20, 1798, the Roman Republic was pro- 
claimed. It was an imitation of the French.* 

The Italian Republics were required to receive 
and support P'rench troops. France dominated 
them. 

* Thiers. Botta. 



102 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 



In the Cisalpine Republic (August, 1798), the 
French envoy, Trouve, dictated a new constitu- 
tion. It was irregularly accepted. Other changes 
followed. The people were disaffected. 



XXVIII. 

BONAPARTE had returned to Paris in De- 
cember, 1797. He was greeted with great 
enthusiasm wherever he appeared. But he avoided 
public places. He kept the com- 
The rise of the pany of his officcrs and of learned 
Conqueror. men, wore the dress of the institute, 
and lived as quietly and privately 
at his own house. 

A plan was formed, and many troops and vessels 
collected for the invasion of England. It was sup- 
posed to be Napoleon's plan, but he seems to have 
then foreseen the impossibility of sustaining an in- 
vading army in England, even if it were once 
safely landed. 

General Bonaparte first won distinction as an 
artillery officer at the siege of Toulon in 1793. 
He saved the Government from overthrow by sup- 
pressing the revolt of the sections at Paris, Octo- 
ber 4, 1795, thus ending the French Revolution. 
The Directory rewarded him with the command 
of the army of Italy. His masterly strategy in 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. IO3 

Italy which resulted in brilliant victories and a 
triumphant campaign, had placed him in the front 
rank of great commanders. 

In 1797 the Directory wanted to extend France 
to the Rhine. So they rejected Bonaparte's peace 
of Leoben with Austria. 

Bonaparte had promised to give up Mantua fort- 
ress. But he refused to keep his word. He 
threatened to renew the war unless Austria agreed 
to the Rhine boundary, and relinquished claim to 
Mantua. 

Then Austria submitted to make with him the 
Treaty of Campo Formio, October 7, 1797. 

This divided between them as spoil, the Repub- 
lic of Venice, though the Paris Directory had for- 
bidden him to do it. The Adige was made the 
boundary. Bonaparte ruthlessly seized for France, 
Venice's Ionian Islands. 

Austria ceded Belgium to P'rance, and was to 
receive Salsburg. 

In 1798 the French stimulated revolt in Switzer- 
land. Her army went to Berne and robbed the 
Swiss treasury of about five million dollars. It also 
seized three hundred cannon and forty thousand 
muskets. It instigated the new Constitution of 
April 12, 1798, and required alliance offensive and 
defensive. It extensively robbed the Swiss. It 
united Geneva and free Mulhousen with France, 
and set all Switzerland in turmoil and strife. 

The Egyptian campaign was proposed. Bona- 



104 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

parte saw in it his hope of humbling the British 
power in the East. The Nile might be a good 
point through which French power and French 
armies were to reach the rich countries and com- 
mercial seas of India. A rich commerce from 
the East, when it should have been subdued, 
was to be controlled by France. The ports of 
Italy, Malta, Corfu and Alexandria would be in 
his possession. 

With forty thousand men he sailed to attack 
peaceful Egypt, May 19, 1798. He obtained 
Malta by capitulation of recalcitrant knights. His 
only title was force. 

A barbarous decree of the Directory, that any 
neutral vessel bearing English goods, or having 
touched at an English port, should be lawful prize ; 
and the seizure of many American vessels ; and 
the attempt to extort tribute of several millions 
from America to France and many thousands as 
bribery to the Directory, brought on a quasi-yN2iX 
with the United States (1798) ; Washington took 
command of the American army ; treaties were 
suspended, and several sea fights occurred. 

The Americans resisted, but the Hanse Towns, 
unable to resist, were forced to pay the Directory 
great sums for their own right to trade. 

The French fleet that carried Bonaparte's army 
to Egypt was almost destroyed in the great Brit- 
ish victory of the Nile, August i, 1798. 

The Congress of Rastadt could agree on no 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. IO5 

peace, but it continued to sit for some time to 
gain time for both sides to prepare for battles. 

Naples, too, soon began the war by invading 
Rome with eighty thousand men (November, 
1798). The French defeated them and followed 
their retreat ; the cowardly king, Ferdinand the 
Fourth, fled to Sicily, but the lazzaroni, braver than 
their master, fought the enemy for three days, 
before the French became masters of Naples. 

The French formed Naples into the Parthe- 
nopean Republic, similar to the other Italian re- 
publics. The nobles were divided, the middle class 
eager for the Republic ; the lazzaroni became 
quiet ; what friends the king had were powerless. 

But soon came bloody scenes. Cardinal Ruffo, 
a ruffian, as royal vicar, organized ruffians, robbers 
and lazzaroni into royal irregulars for villains' 
work. Count Ruvo, supported by the French, 
was pitted against Ruffo. Both waged barbarous 
conflict, revenge, torture, extermination with fright- 
ful atrocity. 

France made war on Charles Emmanuel the 
Fourth of Sardinia (December, 1798), and he re- 
nounced his throne and commanded his subjects 
to obey the new government made by the French 
and Piedmontese in Northern Italy. He soon 
after died. 

Then came the establishment of the French 
system of conscriptions. Every Frenchman from 
twenty to forty years was made liable to service. 



I06 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

It was applied to Switzerland and Holland as well 
as to Belgium. This law it was that supported 
Napoleon's great wars from 1799 to 181 5. 

One third of the French Councils were to be 
elected annually. In March, 1799, ^^^ elections 
were against the Directory, Sieyes became a 
Director in place of Rewbel ; the other two of the 
bayonet Directory of September 3, 1797, were 
compelled to resign. Jacobinism revived. The 
clubs reopened. But France was no longer in 
frenzy ; Paris did not rise. But civil war renewed 
in Vendee, religious and political. Severe taxes 
and forced robbery of citizens, called forced loans, 
were severely enforced. 

In January, 1799, Lucca became French repub- 
lican. In March the French seized Tuscany. 

In Germany, Archduke Charles of Austria de- 
feated the French under Jourdan at Pullendorf 
and Stechach, March 20-25 (1799), and drove 
them back to France. 

In Italy the French under Sherer were defeated 
by Austrian Kray at Legnano (March 25), Roco 
(March 30) and Verona (April 5). 

The Russians, under Suwarov, arrived, united 
with the Austrians, and defeated Moreau at Cas- 
sano (April 27). 

December 3 the French lost the battle of Coni. 
All Lombardy, all Italy was taken from French 
rule. The peasants frequently rose and aided the 
allies ; Massena, cooped up in Genoa, besieged, 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 10/ 

famished, had the only French troops left in 

all Italy. 

In Naples after the French retired the republic 
fell at once ; the outrages committed by the Royal- 
ist party were most revolting : murder, torture, 
republicans slowly strangled or burned on slow 
fires while furies danced and yelled around them. 
For two days the horrible work went on ; death 
without torture was accepted by republicans as 
mercy ; the details are too sickening to relate. 

Two castles surrendered on condition promised 
that republicans should be carried to Toulon or 
remain unmolested, but Admiral Nelson arrived, 
bringing the worthless runaway king, Ferdinand 
the Fourth. The treaty was discarded. Arbitrary 
commissions tried these prisoners. Four thousand 
were executed ; a fearful royal offset against the 
French oligarchy's Reign of Terror. 

Forty-five thousand more Russians under Kor- 
sakov, and thirty thousand Austrians, came to 
Switzerland and defeated the French. Suwarov 
crossed the Alps from Italy. General Massena 
defeated Korsakov at Zurich and drove him to a 
remarkable march across the Grisons, to Suwarov. 
The Turkish and Russian fleets took from France 
the Ionian Islands of which Bonaparte had robbed 
Venice. 



io8 THE world's greatest conflict. 



XXIX. 

ON March 3, 1799, Bonaparte, in his attempt 
to conquer Syria, reached Jaffa, the ancient 
Joppa. Its fortifications contained a garrison of 
more than four thousand men. He 

Egypt. took it by assault and, for thirty 

hours, delivered it up to pillage and 
murder. Many prisoners were taken. 

Thiers * says, '' Bonaparte decided upon a terri- 
ble measure . . . Transported into a barbarous 
country he had involuntarily adopted its measures. 
He caused these prisoners to pass under the edge 
of the sword." But Bonaparte had no right to be 
there at all. Morally he had no authorization that 
a pirate on the seas does not also have. His only 
guarantee was brute force, and it was brutally ex- 
ecuted. He had attacked a Mohammedan country 
and shown it that he was a barbarian ; had dis- 
graced the civilization of Europe. That this was 
not his only cruel act we shall see. 

These men were captured ; they were helpless. 
No arms were now in their hands. Had Bona- 
parte not been an unprovoked invader ; had he 
even been as these prisoners were, defenders of 
their own country and their homes against a for- 
eign foe of another race, another civilization and 

* A French historian and statesman and defender of Bonaparte. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. IO9 

another religion, even in that case this bloody 
massacre would still have been atrocious, whole- 
sale murder. 

Fortunately for the checking of this barbarous 
campaign, an English officer captured some heavy 
artillery, sent by sea for Bonaparte, and with it 
landed British forces for the successful defense of 
Acre. Although the French under Kleber de- 
feated the Damascus army near Mt. Tabor, yet 
the assault on Acre, instead of giving Bonaparte 
the key to Syria, was defeated and his retreat to 
Egypt was constantly harassed by the pursuing 
Turks and Arabs whose tempers were sharpened 
to vengeance by the atrocities of Bonaparte. The 
French, sick and exhausted, fell upon the burn- 
ing sands. The pursuers killed every straggler. 
Bonaparte retreated to Cairo, where he pretended 
to be a conqueror. The terrible defeat he had re- 
ceived in his Syrian campaign was a great chagrin 
to his ambition. 

A Turkish army landed in Egypt. Bonaparte 
defeated and routed it at Aboukir. Bonaparte 
left Egypt August 23, 1799, to seize the govern- 
ment of France. 

The plea in excuse of this frightful murder of 
prisoners is that the French had no means of 
sending them to Egypt, that the French army was 
itself in want of rations ; that to free the prison- 
ers would be to increase the number of its own 
enemies. The matter was debated in a council of 



no THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 

war before the bloody executions by musketry and 
bayonets. Such was the lesson in inhumanity 
that the barbarity of Napoleon taught to the East. 

General Kleber was left with forces much de- 
pleted by war and plague. In vain he made a 
gallant struggle. He was murdered by a fanatic 
Turk. 

Napoleon's Egyptian war convicts him of atro- 
cious motive ; neither he nor France had any 
previous quarrel with or provocation from Egypt 
or Turkey. He invaded, in the evil spirit of con- 
quest, a peaceful people. A robber takes property 
and goes his way ; Bonaparte intended to also take 
from Moslems the sacred right of government. » 



XXX. 

IN the final treaty of peace, September 23, 1783, 
Great Britain acknowledged the independence 
of the American Republic, bounded by British 
America, the Atlantic, Florida and 
America. the Mississippi River from its source 

to the Spanish possessions south. 
West of the Mississippi to the Rocky Mount- 
ains, all south of British America to Texas, was 
Louisiana territory, mostly wilderness and all 
held by Spain. This now includes several great 
States. 



THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. Ill 

North of the Ohio River all was wilderness 
except a few very small settlements. Chicago did 
not exist. Pittsburg was a small frontier outpost. 
No State existed west of Pennsylvania. 

In 1789 Virginia, Massachusetts and Pennsyl- 
vania were the great States. North Carolina and 
New York ranked next. Philadelphia was a larger 
city than New York. 

The States were loosely held together ; each 
had its own separate custom's tariff ; each was 
almost independent of the others ; great evils 
came from the commercial competition ; the old 
Congress owed eight million dollars abroad — a 
great sum in those days ; it had a great debt at 
home. The army was unpaid ; the Treasury was 
empty ; the paper currency was worthless. Each 
State, too, was in debt ; Congress had no power 
to raise money; it could not compel the States to 
levy taxes, or to pay their shares of the public 
debt, or of current expenses. 

Revenue is a first necessity of a nation. 

Great interests were clashing and eagerly 
debated. 

Should the tonnage tax be higher on foreign than 
on American vessels } Producers of raw material 
objected. Madison favored the affirmative. 

Should the tonnage tax be lighter on our allies by 
commercial treaties than on other nations ? " No," 
said Sherman, Benson and others, ** let trade fol- 
low its natural course." 



112 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 

Congress asked the States to grant it power to 
put a five per cent, duty on imported foreign 
goods, in order to pay the public debt. Several 
of the States assented. Rhode Island and New- 
York refused. They wished to control their own 
duties on imports as they were doing. 

The public debt was at a great discount ; poor 
soldiers of the Revolution sold their pay certifi- 
cates very low ; the public faith was dishonored ; 
there was most urgent need of power in Congress 
to raise a national revenue ; excessive importa- 
tions* ruined the domestic manufactures which 
had begun during the war. 

Could a revenue and protective duty have been 
laid on imports it would have relieved the public 
credit, and might have protected private credit, of 
which these light-taxed and free importations 
completed the ruin. 

With a proper protective tariff the worthless 
currency could have been made sound, domestic 
industry encouraged, and some of the specie re- 
tained in the country. Without such protection 
great distress existed ; the specie went abroad. 

To add to the distress Great Britain shut its 
West India ports against United States vessels ; 
and still further, England imposed enormous tariff 
duties on the most valuable American exports. 

Congress had no power to remedy the bad con- 

* In 1784-85 the imports were $30,000,000 against less than $9,000,000 
exports. 



THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. II3 

dition. The States had not delegated it. They 
were thirteen independent sovereignties. 

Thus the country was powerless to preserve its 
honor, its credit, its commerce, its self-respect. 

The attempt of Massachusetts to raise by direct 
tax the money to pay its debts, produced " Shay's 
Rebellion " of 1786, to suppress which a military 
force was required. 

The States were not yet a united nation. 

A convention was assembled at Philadelphia in 
May, 1787, ''for the sole and express purpose of re- 
vising the Articles of Confederation." It exceeded 
instructions and decided to form a constitution. 

At that date not a nation on earth had a written, 
single-instrument constitution. 

Great Britain had Magna Charta and many acts 
of Parliament. Its real constitution was only its 
whole mass of laws, precedents and judicial deci- 
sions. Its Parliament, then as now, could make 
any law whatever, and no constitutional principle 
except these was behind them to declare their 
powers exceeded and the act null. 

The Americans founded the system of a funda- 
mental declaration of principles as the basis of all 
law, any violation of which, by Congress or legis- 
lature, to be declared null and void, by an inde- 
pendent judiciary on application of any citizen. 
Thus the powers of the government were at once 
firmly restricted within defined limits. Thus Con- 
gress can make only such laws as are authorized 



114 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 

by the Constitution. This system is the great 
governmental invention of the modern ages. 

In the Convention of 1786, one party supported 
the plan of a congress of but one House, in which 
each State should be represented in proportion to 
its population. Another party urged that every 
State, large or small, should have the same equal 
representation. The former became the Federal- 
ist, the latter the Anti-Federalist party. 

The debates were chiefly on representation and 
on the power of Congress to coerce States. 

An agreement was made on a House, elected on 
the basis of population, two fifths of the slaves to 
be counted in the apportionment of representa- 
tives ; and a Senate in which each State has but 
two senators. 

The executive (a president), the judiciary and the 
legislative branches are independent of one another 
and not to infringe on one another's duties. 

This Constitution, of many provisions, required 
the ratification of State conventions of nine States 
before it had effect. It was ratified as follows : 

Delaware, December 7, 1787; 

Pennsylvania, December 12, 1787; 

New Jersey, December 18, 1787; 

Georgia, January 2, 1788 ; 

Connecticut, January 9, 1788 ; 

Massachusetts, February 6, 1788; 

Maryland, April 28, 1788 ; 

South Carolina, May 23, 1788; 



THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. II5 

New Hampshire, June 21, 1788; and from this 
ninth ratification dates the adoption of the Consti- 
tution.* Virginia followed four days later and New 
York on July 26, 1788 ; North Carolina, November 
21, 1789, and Rhode Island May 29, 1790, 

George Washington was unanimously elected 
President by eleven States ; the others did not 
vote. He was inaugurated April 30, 1789. John 
Adams was chosen Vice-President by plurality 
only ; thirty-five out of sixty-nine votes. Adams 
was accused of holding monarchial preferences, 
but he denied it. 

Two parties existed. The Federalists, headed 
by Washington, John Adams and Alexander 
Hamilton, were favorably inclined to a strong, cen- 
tralized government ; the Anti-Federalists, after- 
wards called Republicans, headed by Thomas 
Jefferson, advocated strong reserve powers in the 
individual States, and in the people, and that all 
powers not expressly granted to the general gov- 
ernment in plain terms, are retained in the State 
or in the people. 

The Federalists generally sympathized with the 
Enghsh, the Republicans with the French. 

Departments of State, Treasury and War were 
created. Thomas Jefferson became Secretary of 
State ; Alexander Hamilton, of the Treasury ; 
Henry Knox, of War, and Edmund Randolph, 
Attorney-General. 

* Goodrich, p. 241. 



Il6 • THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

A Supreme Court was organized, with John Jay 
as Chief Justice. 

Virginia ratified the Constitution with the 
declaration that she was at liberty to withdraw 
from the Union whenever its powers were used 
for oppression ; and New York, after Hamilton 
had declared that no State could ever be coerced 
by an armed force. 

The very first Fourth of July under our Consti- 
tution was signalized by the first law of our new 
government, except one which established the 
official oaths required to start the government 
itself. The Tariff Act of July 4, 1789, of both 
specific and ad valorem duties, was passed on 
Washington's recommendation, in his very first 
message, that " the safety and interest of the 
people " required it. Southern representatives 
gave twenty-one votes for and three against it ; 
the Middle States thirteen for to one against ; 
New England five for to nine against ; total, thirty- 
nine for to thirteen against. Thus the almost 
solid South and Middle States passed it against 
almost two thirds of the New England vote. 

At the second session of the first Congress the 
Tariff of 1790 was enacted. 

After much discussion. Congress decided that 
the President can remove officers without consent 
of the Senate.* 

In 1790 ended the war between Georgia and 

* Goodrich, p. 24. 



THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 11/ 

the Creek Indians. General Harmer was se- 
verely defeated in two battles in Ohio with the 
Indians. 

On November 3, 1791, the Indians there gave a 
bloody defeat to another force of about fourteen 
hundred men under the veteran General St. Clair, 
of whom eight hundred and ninety were killed, 
wounded or missing.* The numbers engaged on 
each side were supposed to be about equal. 

Congress, resolved to continue the Indian war, 
voted to raise the regular army to five thousand 
men. This law to raise three more regiments of 
regulars was carried against the warm opposition 
of the Anti-Federalists, who charged that it was 
in aid of monarchial designs. 

Congress ordered Hamilton to prepare a plan of 
finance. He reported it to Congress in 1790. 

He advised that the nation should provide to 
pay its foreign and its domestic debts, and the 
war debts of the several States, and for that pur- 
pose to lay a tax on luxuries and spirits. 

All favored paying the foreign debt. Many 
opposed assuming the domestic debt ; they feared 
the influence of a national debt to consolidate 
the government. These were mostly Southern 
Republicans. 

The Federalists urged the assumption by the 
nation of the State debts of twenty-six million dol- 
lars in addition to the old Confederation debt of 

* Hale's U. S., p. no. 



Il8 THE world's greatest CONFLICT, 

fifty-four million dollars. Much of the old debt 
had been sold to speculators at low prices, some 
as low as fifteen per cent, and mostly in the Middle 
and Northern States. Some argued that Govern- 
ment should pay only the market price. Should 
the present holder have the full amount or only 
the current price .-* 

Some proposed to divide the difference between 
the original holder and the speculative purchaser. 
Madison proposed in Congress to pay the market 
price to the present holder and the balance to the 
original owner. Congress rejected the proposal 
by a large majority. 

Hamilton insisted on paying the full face value. 

Federalists urged that the debt was made in the 
common cause ; that States, then most active for 
the benefit of all, should not now be made to bear 
the burden of all ; that States had transferred to the 
general Government their principal sources of reve- 
nue, and the debts should follow. The House by a 
small majority refused. 

Then originated American *' log-rolling." Vir- 
ginians wanted the capital moved from Philadel- 
phia to the Potomac. Jefferson and Hamilton 
traded. They yoked the two measures together. 
The Virginia Senators, White and Lee, changed 
their votes. They now voted to assume the debts. 
Hamilton and Robert Morris sold themselves to 
the Potomac plan. Both measures were thus, sep- 
arately, barely carried by small majorities, by this 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. II9 

corrupt bargain. The capital was to be moved in 
ten years. 

The debts were funded at interest. Govern- 
ment paper soon rose from fifteen per cent, to 
above par. This gave sudden wealth to the spec- 
ulators who had bought it at low prices. This 
again excited dissatisfaction. 

Hamilton advised to charter a national bank. 
Again the South opposed. They feared a national 
bank as a great monied institution that might hold 
too much power and influence. They denied the 
power of Congress to create it. 

The Federalists replied that the power given by 
the Constitution to Congress to regulate com- 
merce, collect taxes, borrow money and pay debts 
included this power as incident. 

But three banks existed in America. More 
bank facilities, it was said, were needed. 

The debate was long and earnest. Congress 
passed the bill to charter a national bank in 1791, 
to expire in 181 1, with ten million dollars capital, 
one quarter to be paid in coin, and three quar- 
ters in six per cent, national debt certificates. 
The Government was to own one fifth of the 
stock. 

Washington asked the advice of his cabinet. 
Jefferson and Randolph denied, Hamilton and 
Knox affirmed the constitutionality of the bill. 
Then Washington signed it. 

Again the newly funded debt aided the specula- 



120 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 

tors who had bought it. It was used as capital 
for this great, privileged bank. 

Jefferson wrote, August 25, 1791 : 

" Ships are lying idle at the wharves ; buildings 
are stopped ; capital withdrawn from commerce, 
manufactures, arts and agriculture, to be employed 
in gambling, and the tide of prosperity almost 
unparalleled in any country, is arrested in its 
course and suppressed by the rage of getting 
rich in a day." 

This active speculation had been stimulated by 
Hamilton's Federalists' legislation. Nothing yet 
seemed to be done for industry. But Hamilton 
was an aristocrat. Yet he produced a better 
measure. It was his tariff bill which was passed 
in February, 1792. It exempted from duty raw 
material for manufactures. 

Internal revenue taxes, including tax on spirits, 
were created in 179 1. 

In 1 791 Vermont adopted the national Consti- 
tution and asked to be admitted as a State. In 
1776 it had no government. It was variously 
claimed by New York, New Hampshire and 
Massachusetts. It resisted these claims. It was 
not one of the original, united thirteen colonies. 
It should have been considered as the fourteenth 
colony. It aided in the struggle for American in- 
dependence. It fought the British. It became 
the fourteenth State, March 4, 1791. 

Vermont was a free State, so the slave power 



THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 121 

required that Kentucky be admitted a slave State, 
to balance Vermont. This was done June i, 1792. 

In 1 791 Congress decided not to admit members 
of the cabinet to take part in Congress,* 

The census taken in 1791 showed 3,921,326 
persons, of whom 695,655 were slaves. The reve- 
nue was ^4,771,000; exports about $19,000,000; 
imports about $20,000,000. f 

Great Britain still held that colonial trade was all 
her own. She prohibited Americans from trading 
with British colonies. She would admit American 
produce only in the vessels of the State that pro- 
duced it or in British vessels. This threw the 
trade of those States that had little or no ship- 
ping, into British vessels, to the exclusion of the 
vessels of other States. 

Still our exports were five times and our imports 
nine times larger with Britain than with France.J 

Since the treaty of 1783 America and England 
had constantly accused each other of bad faith. 
England alleged that America prevented loyalists 
from recovering their property, and British from 
collecting debts due before the Revolution. 

The Americans complained that British troops 
carried away slaves, for whom the owners wanted 
pay; that the British still refused to give up, 
according to the treaty, the American frontier 
posts, but by holding them controlled American 

♦Randall's Life of Jefferson, Vol. II. p. 103. t Hale, p. no. 

$ Jefferson's Report, December 28, 1791. 



122 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 

Indians and incited them against the American 
settlers. 

Recent depredations on American commerce — 
impressment of American seamen by the British 
navy — added greatly to the animosity. 

England refused commercial negotiations and 
declined to exchange ministers. But at last, in 
October, 1791, a minister — Mr. Hammond — 
came. He defended England's course by urging 
that the individual States had not repealed their 
war confiscation laws, but had passed new ones ; 
had made property and paper money a legal 
tender to British creditors. 

Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State, replied that 
the British negotiators of 1783 knew beforehand 
that Congress could not repeal State laws ; that 
the British carried off negro slaves in violation 
of the treaty ''on the fulfillment of which de- 
pended the means of paying debts in proportion 
to the number of laborers withdrawn," and that 
the State legislation was retaliatory for prior Brit- 
ish infractions ; that England continued to hold 
the frontier forts which made the expense of 
Indian wars and cut off our Indian trade. 

The hopes, fears and passions of American 
politics were inextricably influenced by those of 
England and France. 

In many American minds England was asso- 
ciated with Indian massacres ; the horrors of 
prison ships ; the miseries of seven years of war ; 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 1 23 

commercial restrictions, and George the Third's 
odious personality. 

France was in revolution. It was ruled by vio- 
lent oligarchy. It was not a democracy, for 
democracy is ''rule of the people, by the people, 
for the people," and it was but few who ruled 
France. It was not a republic, for in a republic 
the people freely choose their law-makers and 
rulers, and the French did not freely choose Dan- 
ton and Robespierre. Those villains were no 
more real republicans or actual democrats than 
they were monarchists : less so ; for they ruled 
with the power of dictators. 

The sympathy of Americans was for their re- 
cent friends, the French, as against their recent 
enemy, George the Third ; for those struggling 
for the hope of republican democracy yet to come 
in France. 

Toward France was lively gratitude for help 
in time of urgent need ; a warm, friendly desire 
to reciprocate the great favor ; a general, fervent 
wish for French free, liberal, republican govern- 
ment ; the hope that French revolutionary ex- 
cesses would cease, and mild, good government 
yet come. Secretary Jefferson wrote, in August, 
1 791, ** I still hope the French Revolution will 
issue happily, I feel that the permanence of our 
own leans, in some degree, on that, and that fail- 
ure there would be a powerful argument to prove 
that there must be a failure here." 



124 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

These feelings were especially strong among 
the Anti-Federalists. Shocked by the horrors, 
the unbridled license, the lack of real republican 
democracy in France, the Federalists were less 
friendly to its sham democracy, less tolerant of 
bloody, arbitrary tyrants, who took the sacred 
name of Liberty and blasphemed it. 

News of the decisive defeat of the royalists by 
the French troops at Valmy, September 20, 1792, 
caused enthusiastic delight in America, and 
Americans addressed each other as " Citizen." 

The election of November, 1792, gave the 
unanimous electoral vote to Washington for a 
second term of four years. 

Adams was accused of desiring to have an aris- 
tocracy, and of favoring the new finance laws. 
George Clinton, ex-Governor of New York, favored 
the supremacy of the individual States over the 
general government ; he had opposed the adop- 
tion of the Constitution and the new finance 
system. 

For Vice-President, Adan.s had seventy-seven 
votes, Clinton fifty, Jefferson four. Burr one. 

An eminent British authority says, ''In 1793, 
the ministry of Pitt, without any real cause, de- 
clared war against the French republic, in spite 
of the opposition of Fox and Sheridan."* 

Both British and French authors are generally 
very obscure in assigning causes for this needless 

* Chambers's Cyc!opa;dia, Article on Great Britain. 



THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 125 

war, began by George the Third, Pitt, and the 
French Convention. It was to continue till the 
middle of 1815 — twenty-two long years — except 
the intervals from March 27, 1802, to May 24, 
1803, and again from April 6, 18 14, to March i, 
1815. 

The exciting news of this war reached America 
in April, 1793. Americans friendly to France 
prepared to send out privateers against English 
commerce. 

Washington was resolved on neutrality. He 
issued a proclamation April 22, 1793, warning 
Americans against carrying contraband, and all 
acts contrary to impartial, friendly conduct towards 
both belligerents. 

The Republicans violently assailed this act of 
Washington as an illegal *' royal edict" unworthy 
our gratitude to our late allies, the French. 

Bitter vituperation in politics was the fashion 
of that day, and its venomous invective was not 
spared against Washington. 

The war between England and France, in which 
Holland and Spain and other powers soon joined, 
put the ocean trade of Europe largely into the 
vessels of neutral America. This trade was very 
profitable to Americans. In 1793 a French de- 
cree opened the French home and West India 
ports to American vessels free as those of France.* 
This benefited Americans. 

* Jefferson's Life by Randall, Vol. II. p. 151. 



126 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 

Americans now took most of the rich West 
India trade and had the richest commerce in the 
world except that of Great Britain. French, 
Spanish, Dutch, even English, found it safer to 
entrust the carriage of their goods to the neutral 
American vessels, to escape capture by the priva- 
teers of their enemies who were supposed to 
respect the neutral flag. Even before this war, 
England and America had nearly all the ocean 
China trade. 



XXXI. 

IN April, 1793, Citizen Genet came to represent 
France. He landed at Charleston, where he 
was received with rapturous admiration. He be- 
lieved that all Americans were, like 
Genet. thcsc Southcmers, wild with enthusi- 

asm for the French Revolution. Be- 
fore he had reported to the American government 
as envoy, or been officially recognized, he issued 
at Charleston commissions to two privateers 
against British commerce. 

On his journey from Charleston to Philadelphia, 
Genet received extravagant attentions. Crowds 
flocked to meet him. He persisted in schemes 
likely to involve America in war with England 
and Spain. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 12/ 

Washington refused to permit such violations 
of neutrality. Americans were excited. The two 
parties took sides for and against Genet. 

A French ship captured an English vessel 
in American waters. Washington required Genet 
to restore the vessel. The popular agitation grew 
wilder. 

Genet, very angry, threatened to appeal from 
President Washington to the people; a means 
which other French revolutionary agents had used 
with success in Europe. He expected the warm 
friendship of Americans for France to overrule 
the wise measures of Washington. 

But his insolence and the recent atrocities of 
the ruling minority in France alienated many 
Americans; origin, language, religion, literature, 
manners, and many customs akin, drew them to- 
ward friendship with the English. They remem- 
bered that even in the late war many of the real 
British people were friends to America ; that not 
all English were partakers in the crimes of George 
the Third. These Americans, mostly Federalists 
and mostly Northerners, approved of Washington's 
measures. 

The Federalist majority in Congress passed a 
neutrality act. 

Republicans charged Washington and the Fed- 
eralists with hostility to ''free principles," and 
attachment to England. The Federalists charged 
the Republicans with contempt of law and order 



128 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 

and subserviency to France. At Washington's 
request, France annulled the powers of Genet. 

Jefferson reported to Congress that American 
exports were mostly raw material, nearly one half 
of which go to Britain and its countries ; that im- 
ports were mostly manufactures, four fifths of 
which come from there ; that some of those coun- 
tries exacted heavy duties on American articles 
and prohibited some of them ; that England's 
corn laws, navigation act and colonial system 
restricted American commerce, while England 
had superior privileges in the United States ; 
that not one sixth of our shipping was in this 
trade. 

He advised an amicable effort to remove these 
unequal restrictions against America, and if that 
should fail, to lay the same counter-restrictions. 

Madison offered resolutions that higher duties 
be laid on goods and vessels of nations with 
whom America had no commercial treaties, from 
which losses of its citizens by the restrictions of 
such countries should be paid. America had such 
a treaty with France, but none with England. 
Then it was that news came t'hat the English 
ministry had announced it lawful to capture any 
neutral vessels bound to France with grain or 
flour. 

A British ''Order in Council" of June, 1793, 
declared as a good prize any vessel carjcying corn 
to France. Under this hostile order many Amer- 



THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 1 29 

ican vessels were captured by British cruisers. 
America was indignant. 

A long and sometimes bitter debate followed. 
Jefferson Republicans argued that America's great 
dependence on the British for manufactures and 
her debts to them, were alarming evils ; that they 
placed the United States at their mercy ; and 
gave them great influence in American politics ; 
that by refusing English goods, America was bene- 
fited by drawing to herself such of their artisans, 
whose wages she really paid, but who are not 
permitted to use American productions ; that the 
United States ought to reciprocate the hostility 
of England and the friendship of France.* 

To this the more northern and more commercial 
men replied that the British make what we want ; 
they give credit which the French do not ; they 
sell cheaper than others ; we gain in volume of our 
commerce; while in 1789. but one half, now in 
1794, two thirds of our commerce is by American 
vessels ; that Virginia owes the British money and 
supports the restrictive resolutions, while New 
England owes them little and opposes restrictions, 
so the British do not appear to influence our 
politics ; that although England injures us by 
Holding our western posts and inciting Indians to 
hostility, yet it is impolitic to adopt trade restric- 
tions that injure America more than England.! 

* Hale's U. S., Vol. II. p. 117. t Ihid, p. 118. 



130 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 

Then news came of the British " Order in 
Council" of November, 1793, which authorized 
the detention or capture of all neutral (therefore 
American) vessels laden with goods from France 
or its colonies, or carrying provisions or supplies 
to either. 

This aroused new indignation. The House 
passed a Bill prohibiting all trade in articles 
produced or made in Great Britain ; the Senate 
finding that Washington wished to try further 
negotiation, rejected the Bill, but it was only by 
the casting vote of Vice-President Adams. 

To prepare for war Congress passed acts to 
increase the regular army, to organize the militia 
and to erect fortifications. 

England modified its November order so as to 
apply only to vessels bringing produce from 
French Islands direct to France, and gave assur- 
ance that most of the American vessels already 
captured would be released. Thereupon the Fed- 
eralists opposed anything irritating to England. 



THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. I3I 



XXXII. 

THE people east of the Alleghanies paid 
most of the import duty. The whiskey 
tax reached those further west ; their 
members of Congress bitterly opposed The whiskey 
it ; they said it was an excise, an Rebellion of 
odious form of tax, and an inter- ^794. 

ference in local affairs. 

In West Pennsylvania officers were resisted. 
Five hundred insurgents attacked an inspector 
who was guarded by a few soldiers. Several citi- 
zens were driven from their homes. Washington 
sent against the malcontents fifteen thousand 
militia. This force was too large to be resisted. 
Several leaders were seized. One was tried and 
convicted of treason, but was afterwards pardoned. 

In 1794 Congress prohibited the Slave Trade 
from American ports. This is the first prohibition 
by a nation, of that wicked trade, although Vir- 
ginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania 
and Massachusetts abolished their foreign slave 
trade before 1789. 



132 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 



XXXIII. 

A LGERINE corsairs had captured eleven 

J^\^ American vessels and taken one hundred 

Americans prisoners. To protect our commerce 

a Bill was offered to construct six 

Trouble with frigatCS. 

Algiers. The Republicans strongly opposed 

it, as beginning a permanent navy, 
expensive, and making payment of the national 
debt impossible. History, they said, shows that 
all nations with a navy are heavily in debt. The 
force was incompetent ; a navy, unless large, would 
fall a prey to the maritime powers. Peace with 
Algiers, or protection by other powers, could be 
bought with less money. 

Against these arguments were brought the 
heavier ones that our commerce was exposed and 
that one hundred Americans were in Algerine 
slavery. These prevailed. The Bill was passed. 
Still the United States, like other nations, bought 
'-^eace with Algiers by paying annual tribute. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 33 



XXXIV. 

GENERAL WAYNE defeated the Indians 
in battle near the Miami, August 20, 1794. 
He laid waste their houses and corn- 
fields and erected forts. In 1795 a Wayne's cam- 
treaty with these Indians permitted paign, 1794. 
the peaceful settlement of Ohio. 

The land was bought for a trifling price, but 
far higher than it was worth for mere hunting 
purposes. The purchase gave wheat bread to the 
natives, which was to them a valuable change 
from their former meager diet. So the sale, in- 
stead of impoverishing the Indians, gave them 
comparative wealth. 



XXXV. 

WASHINGTON sent John Jay to England 
to negotiate. The treaty made by Jay 
with England allowed to the British free inland 
navigation in the United States ; 
opened American ports to British jay's English 
vessels ; left Canadian ports closed to Treaty. 
American vessels ; bound the United 
States to guarantee to British creditors the collec- 
tion of such debts as an American could collect ; 



134 THE WORLD^S GREATEST CONFLICT. 



Great Britain to pay American losses by former 
captures by British cruisers ; no private property 
to be confiscated in wars ; the United States to 
have a West India trade for two years, but not to 
carry West India or East India goods to other 
countries, nor rice or military or naval stores 
without special permit ; war ships of either nation 
to be allowed in the other's ports; foreign enemies 
of either country not to arm privateers in the 
other's ports or to sell prizes there ; no reprisals 
to be made against each other till demand for 
satisfaction is refused ; rendition of escaping 
criminals. 

Mr. Jay proposed abolition of privateering, but 
the British minister, Grenville, refused. 

This treaty, so favorable to England, so inviting 
it to future aggression on America, by barring 
retaliatory penalties, met with great opposition. 

Republicans vehemently opposed it ; so did 
others. By public meetings, resolutions, remon- 
strances, they denounced it. They alleged that it 
favored England ; was not favorable to France ; 
was for the benefit of the North ; failed to secure 
pay for slaves who fled with the British army ; did 
not allow Americans to have a permanent trade to 
the British West Indies ; did not provide against 
the impressment of American seamen by the 
British ; they declared that it acknowledged naval 
stores to be contraband, while France did not ; 
that it rejected the great idea held by America, 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 35 

Russia, Denmark, and admitted by France, that 
an enemy's goods were not liable to capture in 
vessels of neutrals. Some of these were, indeed, 
very grave objections. 

As the news of its terms became public, the 
people from Boston to South Carolina received it 
with a storm of execration. All Republicans and 
many Federalists censured it. Now they charged 
that it exceeded the treaty-making power. 

The treaty entirely satisfied nobody. Washing- 
ton had ''several objections" to it. By his influ- 
ence however the Senate ratified it by a vote of 
twenty to ten ; exactly the two thirds required to 
ratify a treaty. But the Senate annulled the 
inland navigation article. 

Washington believed it was best to ratify it, as 
these were the best terms obtainable. He signed 
it, August 14, 1795, in the face of the popular 
clamor. 

The first treaty ever made by the United States 
was that of 1778 with France, in which France 
made the then vast concession to the United 
States that from a neutral vessel, no cruiser can 
seize any goods belonging to enemies of the 
cruiser's nation. 

England still refused this exemption from its 
practice which France had freely accorded. 

France was offended by this Jay treaty. France 
now revived old treaty restrictions on American 
commerce. 



136 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

England had not rescinded, but renewed its 
order to seize provisions going to French ports. 

England still impressed American seamen to 
serve an indefinite time in the British navy. A 
British frigate boarded an American vessel between 
New York and Newport in an attempt to seize 
the French minister. The minister escaped, but 
the British took away his papers. 

The House, sixty-two to thirty-seven, demanded 
the instructions given to Jay. Washington refused. 
In 1796, he laid the treaty before the House. Here 
it had many enemies. A long debate followed ; its 
friends, including Washington, claimed that it was 
now law complete and binding. 

The opposition Republicans insisted that a 
treaty which requires appropriation of money or 
any act of Congress to give it effect is not valid 
till the House has acted on it; that the House 
might make or withhold action without breaking 
faith. 

The House voted, fifty-seven to thirty-five, that 
the House has a right to consider the expediency 
of giving effect to treaties on subjects committed 
by the Constitution to Congress. As this treaty 
required money, the House voted by two majority, 
that it is expedient to make the appropriation. 

The Republican members retired from Wash- 
ington's cabinet. By Jefferson's party Washing- 
ton was assailed with clamor and abuse. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. I37 



XXXVI. 

SPAIN feared that the spirit of American liberty 
might be carried into its great American 
possessions. During negotiations for American 
independence it had tried secretly to 
have the western boundary of the The position 
United States fixed several hundred of Spain, 
miles east of the Mississippi. Now 
it refused to make a trade treaty or join in a plan 
for the mutual use of that river ; it denied access 
to the sea, in the hope that Kentucky would come 
into Spanish possession to gain that route. The 
Kentuckians were enraged. 

War existed between France and Spain. Genet, 
in 1794, prepared in Kentucky to seize Louisiana. 
Spain was alarmed. In October, 1795, a treaty 
was made which gave to Americans the free use 
of that river to the Gulf, and the right to deposit 
goods at New Orleans. 



138 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 



XXXVII. 

IN September, 1796, Washington issued his fare- 
well address, which is still wise counsel against 
disunion, sectional dislikes, party spirit, and inter- 
national favoritism. 
Washington's The general election of November, 
Farewell. 1 796, gave John Adams seventy-one 
and Thomas Jefferson sixty-eight elec- 
toral votes. The Constitution then required that 
the one having the highest number be President, 
and the one with the next highest number, Vice- 
President. Adams and Jefferson were inaugurated 
March 4, 1797. 

P'rance claimed that the treaty of 1778 granted 
to her all that could be acquired by any other 
power, and ordered its cruisers to treat neutrals 
as neutrals permitted England to treat them, to 
seize British property on American vessels, and 
all food supply going to England. 

France had hoped for the election of its friend 
Jefferson, as President. Washington had sent 
Mr. Pinckney to Paris and recalled James Monroe 
a well-known friend to the French. Now France 
refused to receive a new minister from the United 
States until *' reparation of grievances," and com- 
pelled Pinckney to leave France. 

Under the excitement of this situation President 



THE WORLD*S GREATEST CONElICT. 1 39 



Adams called Congress in special session, May 15, 
1797. He urged it to create a navy, to fortify 
harbors, to permit merchant ships to arm for self- 
defense, and to prepare the militia ; he spoke with 
severity of the injuries done by France. 

Congress responded with money for several 
frigates and forts and for the services of eighty 
thousand militia ; but it refused to make a regular 
army, or to permit private ships to arm except 
in East Indian and Mediterranean trade, where 
pirates were plenty. This permission to arm was 
given in 1798. 

In May, 1797, the frigate United States was 
launched. It was the only American frigate. We 
had not a single ship of the line ! Jefferson's Repub- 
lican party, ruled by agriculturists, was bitterly 
opposed to having a navy. 

The French directory was arbitrary. It confis- 
cated many American vessels charged with having 
British property on board ; it went further and 
seized others for lack of usual " sea-letters " and 
signed lists of seamen, neither of which our ships 
ever carried, so this was pure, intentional outrage 
on us. 

Adams sent an extraordinary mission — three 
envoys — to France. They found it difficult to get 
an interview with Talleyrand, the French minister 
of foreign affairs, but they were met and beguiled 
by irresponsible servants of the Directory, who in- 
sisted that they should make a gift of fifty thousand 



140 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

dollars to Talleyrand or the Directory, and furnish 
a large loan as a condition that captures of Ameri- 
can vessels should be stopped. Our envoys had 
the weakness to permit this absurd talk through 
several conversations, and the indiscretion to send 
home detailed reports of it, which in the highly 
inflamed state of the public mind could not fail to 
do great harm. It caused a fierce burst of indig- 
nation throughout America. Jefferson's party in- 
stantly became a smaller minority than before. 

Most Southern slaveholders were violent French 
Democrats ; yet they bought and sold human beings 
and lived from forced labor. They denounced 
well-to-do Northerners as aristocrats. But, as the 
war-cloud gathered, even some of these slavery 
Republicans were either silenced or, for a time, 
joined in the outcry against France. In and out 
of Congress the war spirit blazed. Congress 
authorized the President to increase the miniature 
navy, to use two hundred and fifty thousand dollars 
for harbor fortifications, eight hundred thousand 
dollars for arms, to seize armed aggressive vessels, 
and to enlist ten thousand soldiers in case of war 
or threatened invasion. 

It was a strange, infatuated spirit of Americans 
of those times to seek redress by the suicidal 
policy of laying destructive embargoes on our 
own commerce ; a policy far more ruinous to us 
than all our grievances from France and England. 
In this insane spirit Congress empowered the 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. I4I 

President to suspend our own great commerce 
with French countries, the effect of which was to 
throw away our valuable trade with French West 
Indies, Holland and Italy, as well as with France ; 
a heavy blow to America for a slight blow to 
France. 

Congress, in 1798, authorized merchant ships to 
resist French search or seizure, and to capture 
such aggressors. Treaties with France were de- 
clared annulled. Naval ships and privateers were 
to capture French armed ships. Twelve regiments 
of infantry, two million dollars of direct war tax, 
and five million dollars loan were authorized. 



XXXVIII. 

THE American press already had vast influence. 
Newspapers may rule a reading, intelligent 
country. More than one hundred then existed. 
Philadelphia had eight dailies — as 
many as Napoleon afterwards allowed The American 
France ; New York had five, Balti- Press. 1798. 
more two ; Boston had five semi- 
weeklies ; an attempt to support one daily had 
failed. Publisher, printer and editor were gen- 
erally the same man. Dictionary Noah Webster, 
editor of the leading Federalist paper, the Minerva, 
was editor only ; an exception. 

Outside of New England most newspaper men 



142 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

were foreigners, especially the Jefferson Repub- 
licans. Newspaper essays were the fashion. 
Ferocious epithets abounded with richest license. 
Slander, bitter invective, seemed alike in Ameri- 
can and British press and in English diplomacy, 
to outrun common sense. Verbal outrages were 
extreme. William Cobbett fairly shook parties, 
as, when a libel verdict drove this English tory 
home he turned radical, and stirred up England 
against George the Third's ministry. 

Many Americans — the Republican party — mis- 
took the French Revolution for real democracy in 
which the real people must rule. In France it was 
not the people, but violent usurping faction that 
ruled. Democracy is not license. The moment 
the real people cease to rule or one is permitted 
to injure another, then real democracy has ceased. 

Foreign writers violently denounced the meas- 
ures of Adams' administration. They stirred up 
friends of France and dislikers of England to bit- 
ter, invective opposition. The Federalists majority 
in Congress retaliated by passing the famous Alien 
law, which required fourteen years residence and 
five years previous declaration of intentions before 
an alien could become a citizen. All aliens must be 
registered. Any alien whom the President judged 
to be dangerous must leave the country or be 
forcibly removed. In case of war, natives of 
countries hostile to us might be secured, removed 
or required to give security for good behavior. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. I43 

July 14, 1798, the "Sedition Law" followed, to 
restrain Americans from abuse of speech and of 
the press, from defaming Congress or the Presi- 
dent, exciting hatred against them, stirring up 
sedition, making unlawful combinations to resist 
the laws, or aiding foreign enemies. 

Severe penalties were attached to violation of 
these two laws. 

These laws contained an un-American spirit ; a 
spirit foreign to the English and American race. 
They aroused a fierce discussion. The Federal- 
ists had made a great mistake. Pitt had an alien 
law in Britain, and the spirit of the English was 
against it. In both countries the spirit of Hberty 
and justice opposed such laws. The existence but 
non-enforcement of Pitt's alien law helped to pro- 
voke renewal of British war with France in 1803. 
Libel was common in both America and Britain. 

The Adams alien law was never enforced, so 
the Federalists incurred all its great odium for no 
advantage whatever. 

Under the Adams sedition law were very few 
prosecutions. Matthew Lyon of Vermont, a mem- 
ber of Congress, Charles Colt, a Connecticut pub- 
lisher, Thomas Cooper and J. T. Callender were 
prosecuted, convicted, fined and imprisoned for 
defamation of the President. It was mainly these 
petty affairs in which a great free principle was 
outraged, that drove the Federalist party from 
power in 1801. 



144 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 



XXXIX. 

NOVEMBER 10, 1798, Kentucky's legislature 
passed resolutions, written by Thomas 
Jefferson, that the Union is a compact ; " that as 
in other cases of compact between 
Kentucky parties having no common judge, each 
"Nuiiifica- party has equal right to judge for 
tion," 1798. itself, as well of infractions as of the 
mode and measures of redress." 
This principle would permit any one State to 
block the general government. The national gov- 
ernment is itself really the *' common judge " be- 
tween States. 

These resolutions pronounced the Alien and 
Sedition acts '' not law, but altogether void and of 
no force; " " that every State has a natural right, in 
cases not within the compact, to nullify of their 
own authority, all assumptions of power." They 
asked other States to concur and to take meas- 
ures of resistance. Virginia responded, but more 
mildly. 

Jefferson and his party were then strict con- 
struers of the Constitution ; they denied that it 
gave any power whatever not stated in plain words. 
With this the Federalists took issue. After Jeffer- 
son and his States Rights party came into power, 
they went to the opposite extreme in practice 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. I45 

when acquisition of territory and embargo became 
the great questions, while Federalists, led by 
Josiah Quincy, made the opposite change by insist- 
ing on the strict letter of the Constitution ; thus, 
after 1801, came the strange spectacle of the two 
great parties exchanging ground. 



XL. 



BETWEEN 1795 and 1805 France sent great 
expeditions for the conquest of Ireland, 
Egypt, Syria, Malta and St. Domingo. Every- 
where it was ready to conquer and 
to dictate. Had England maintained American war 
peace it is probable that France with France, 
would have secured and colonized 1798-99- 

the immense country, that is now 
that of the United States west of the Mississippi 
River to the Pacific Ocean. This was a startling 
prospect for the United States. 

In 1796, Barras, head of the French Directory, 
asserted to James Monroe that the United States 
owes its liberty to France, and efforts were made 
to require us to pay tribute to France. From that 
time forward for years the French government 
was not friendly to the American republic. The 
French were terrible alike to friends and foes. 
They continued to imprison our seamen. 

The idea of war with France was distasteful to 



146 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

Americans. America then had more merchant 
vessels and more sailors than any other nation 
except Britain. Much of the French carrying 
trade was done by our vessels, because French 
vessels were a good prize to the British with whom 
France was at war. During six months of 1795 
British war ships impressed forty-two American 
seamen; the French decree of July 2, 1796, ex- 
posed these helpless impressed Americans to be 
hanged if captured by the French. In the West 
Indies French cruisers made prisoners of nine 
hundred American seamen, and the British gen- 
erously liberated two hundred of them by exchange. 
In 1797 French cruisers preyed on, and British 
cruisers protected, our West India vessels. 

The embargo forbade clearing of our vessels 
except for the East Indies or the Mediterranean. 
Many did sail despite embargo. 

Holland presented a sad warning against reli- 
ance on the French government. Its patriots had 
been friendly to France, and France had practi- 
cally usurped their government and held it till the 
fall of Napoleon in 18 14. Spain's experience gave 
the same timely warning. 

The French minister, Talleyrand, threatened to 
ravage our coasts. 

January 18, 1798, the Directory forbade any ves- 
sel that had touched at an English port to enter 
France, and declared as good prize any vessel with 
English goods or colonial produce on board. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. I47 

This meant American vessels. This so aroused 
Americans that citizens quickly subscribed $yiir 
700 for war vessels. 

War with France existed. Decatur took the first 
French prize — a twenty-gun privateer. Thirty 
thousand muskets were bought. A French agent 
was arrested in Kentucky. 

Recruiting an army was commenced. President 
Adams appointed Washington lieutenant-general 
of the prospective army. Alexander Hamilton 
was second in command, but seems to have been 
then engaged in a conspiracy with General 
Miranda, a South American, and with the British 
government, for separating the Spanish posses- 
sions from Spain, which must have involved 
America in war with Spain as well as France. 

In November, 1798, the French corvette Retali- 
ation was captured by an American ship, refitted, 
and then taken by the French. 

In 1798 a British squadron boarded at sea the 
American war sloop Baltimore, took from her 
fifty-five seamen, sent back fifty, and carried off 
the other five. The American captain protested, 
struck to superior force, but the Government dis- 
missed him from the navy for lack of spirit, and 
authorized armed vessels to resist all attempts to 
impress from their crews. 

In 1799 the American frigate Constellation, 
Captain Truxton, thirty-eight guns and three hun- 
dred and nine men, met, fought and took the 



148 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

French frigate L'Insurgente, of forty guns and 
four hundred and nine men. In 1800 the Con- 
stellation, after a long chase, fought and disabled 
the French frigate L'Vengeance, of fifty-two 
guns and four hundred men. L'Vengeance lost 
fifty killed, one hundred and ten wounded ; the 
Constellation fourteen killed, twenty-five wounded. 

In 1800 the sloop Boston captured the French 
Marceau of twenty-four guns. In all, nearly eighty 
small French vessels, mostly privateers, were 
taken by the Americans. The French took fewer 
American vessels than before the war began. 

Talleyrand made overtures that he would re- 
ceive an envoy with respect. Adams nominated 
three ; Ellsworth, VanMurray and Henry. (Feb- 
ruary 25, 1799.) Both cabinet and Congress, 
dominated by Hamilton, were against this step. 

As it was the habit of Presidents Washington 
and Adams to retire to their own homes after 
Congress adjourned, leaving the Cabinet to conduct 
all but the most important affairs, which were 
forwarded by the slow mail to the President, 
Adams now removed the opposition members to 
make the Cabinet a Federalist unit. 

The great George Washington died, December 
14, 1799, at Mt. Vernon, after an illness of one 
day. He was almost sixty-eight years of age. 
America's grief was deep, absorbing. 

Congress ordered a monument erected at Wash- 
ington, which is a disgrace to that generation, 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. I49 

because it represents that great Christian Ameri- 
can as a half-naked pagan Roman. As well 
represent an American as an Indian or a Hotten- 
tot. But art continued corrupt for more than 
forty years later. 

September 30, 1800, America and France made 
peace. Each was to restore all captured property 
not already condemned ; each to pay its debts ; 
each to put the other's commerce on the *' most- 
favored-nation " basis; free ships to make free 
goods ; old treaties and indemnity to wait further 
negotiations. 

Our Senate ratified all but the old treaties 
clause — it regarded them as ended — and delay 
of French payment of indemnity. Bonaparte 
construed this action as relinquishing both, and 
as he never paid anything when he could re- 
pudiate it, he thus ratified it and America 
assented in 1801. 

The war spirit declined ; Congress enacted 
suspension of enlistments and discharge of most 
of the new army. Hamilton's ambitious scheme 
of conquest had fallen. It was for Aaron Burr to 
try that scheme later. 

A navy was unpopular and Congress, in 1800, 
authorized the sale of all but thirteen frigates. 

A man was charged with mutiny and murder as 
Thomas Nash ; was claimed by a British consul 
under the extradition clause of Jay's treaty. He 
made oath that he was born in Connecticut, and 



1^0 THE WORLD*S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

that he was impressed into the British service. 
He presented a notarial certificate granted him in 
New York long before, as Jonathan Robbins. The 
President instructed the court to surrender him on 
such testimony as would justify his commitment 
for trial had the offense been committed in Amer- 
ica. He was tried at Halifax by court-martial and 
hanged. Many persons severely censured the 
President's act ; resolutions in the Senate charg- 
ing the President with a dangerous interference 
with the duties of the judiciary were defeated by 
about the usual party vote. 

Mobs resisted the direct tax in Pennsylvania. 
Without resistance about thirty rioters were ar- 
rested. Some of them were rescued. Troops 
and militia were sent there. P>ies, a ringleader, 
and two others, were tried and convicted of trea- 
son. President Adams pardoned them. The 
government was removed to Washington, D. C, 
in June, 1800. 

In the election of 1800 the Republican candi- 
dates for President and Vice-President were 
Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr ; the P'ederalist 
candidates were John Adams and Charles C. 
Pinckney. 

In the electoral college, elected by the people 
of the States, Jefferson and Burr had each seventy- 
three votes, Adams had sixty-five and Pinckney 
sixty-four. There was no choice. The constitu- 
tion provided that the one having the highest 



THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 15I 

number should be President, and the next highest 
Vice-President. 

The House of Representatives voting by States 
must choose from the two highest candidates. An 
effort was made to reverse the intention of the 
people and to elect Burr President. The first 
ballot Jefferson had eight States, Burr six ; divided 
equally, two. The House balloted thirty-five times 
without choice. On the thirty-sixth ballot, Feb- 
ruary 17, ten States voted for Jefferson, four for 
Burr (New England), two were blank (Delaware 
and South Carolina). Fifteen days more without 
choice would have ended the Constitutional gov- 
ernment. It was the Federalists who had voted 
during the thirty-five ballots to make a man presi- 
dent whom the people had not intended for that 
office. This wanton violation of the spirit of the 
constitution swept many men away from the 
Federal party. They viewed this mad attempt to 
reverse the people's will, with astonishment, alarm 
and indignation. Burr, a bad, selfish, immoral 
man, did not decline such support. The Republican 
party now disavowed him. The election of Jef- 
ferson was effected by an assurance from him 
that he would support the nation's financial credit ; 
that he favored a navy, and did not intend to dis- 
place fair-dealing holders of minor offices for par- 
tisan reasons. 

The Federalist majority passed an act to estab- 
lish twenty-three judicial districts in six circuits, 



152 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 

in five of which were created the offices of a chief 
justice and two associates. These judgeships 
Adams filled up very near the close of his term, 
with Federalists, greatly to the dissatisfaction of 
the Republicans, 

Henceforth the Federalists, lately so powerful, 
were but a defeated minority. The Alien and 
Sedition laws, house tax, stamp taxes, the new 
court law, and the effort to defeat the people's 
election by trying to make Burr president, the 
monarchial or class ideas of Hamilton's wing of 
the Federalist, had ruined that party. In 1801 not 
a governor or State legislature was Federal except 
in Delaware, Massachusetts and two other New 
England States. These Alien and Sedition laws 
and that for non-intercourse with France, expired 
on the day of Adams' retirement, March 4, 1801. 
The new judiciary law was soon after repealed 
(March 1802). The army was reduced to three 
regiments ; about three thousand men commanded 
by one brigadier-general. - ' , 

The United States internal taxes were abolished. 
Naturalization requirement was reduced from four- 
teen years' residence to five. The Republicans 
wanted little navy ; no standing army ; no direct 
national internal taxes. The Federalists wanted 
all these. : ' 

The census of 1800 showed the population to be 
5,305,666 whites and 1,002,037 colored.* The new 

* Chambers's Cyclopaedia, Va). XIV. p. 710, 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 53 

ratio for members of Congress was thirty-three 
thousand ; the number of members one hundred 
and forty-one, of which seventy-six were from 
eight free States and sixty-five from the eight 
slave States. 



XLI. 

PUBLIC lands were sold at vendue and only 
at the Treasury or at Pittsburg and Cincin- 
nati ; all at a distance from settlers, and in tracts 
of not less than six hundred and forty 
acres. William H. Harrison, delegate united states, 
from Ohio, procured for the settlers a isoo. 

reform of this inconvenience, with land 
offices easy of access and land at two dollars an acre 
on credit. As in colonial times England had pro- 
hibited manufactures in America, and, since the sep- 
aration, tariff protection was insufficient to cause 
them to grow up as they were then growing in 
France under strong protection, the specie was 
nearly all drained from America and everybody 
wanted credit. The East almost alone had specie 
in plenty, because the East was commercial. 

The Connecticut reserve, settled from New Eng- 
land, became the northeast part of Ohio. Missis- 
sippi became a territory. Indiana was organized 
a territory, with Harrison as governor. 

Bonaparte's Egyptian projects had failed. He 



154 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 

suddenly appeared October 9, 1799, in France, pre* 
ceded by news of his Turkish victory of Aboukir. 
His military renown, simplicity of manners, favor 
to science, and the labors of his secret faction, gave 
him welcome. His coming caused extreme sensa- 
tion. The Directory was alarmed, the Republicans 
dismayed. French public offices were elective ; 
he might probably have obtained power by regu- 
lar means without force, yet he chose to use force. 
For a time he avoided public places. His dress 
was simple, he declined important calls to fetes, 
he met the great lawyers, discussed civil and 
criminal law and commended a simpler and bet- 
ter code. 

Still military spirit was not that of France. A 
great lawyer, scientist or literateur was preferred 
to a mere soldier. Many leaders were not soldiers. 
The civil took precedence. Simplicity was popular. 
It had helped Marat, Robespierre and Danton to 
power. It might serve Bonaparte. He went with 
great civilians ; wore the Institute dress.* But he 
was intriguing. 

Of the three parties the Republicans had Berna- 
dotte, Augereau, Jourdan and Marbot. Barras 
and Sieyes [each led a party which sought supre- 
macy over France], Ducos and the Republicans, 
Moulins and Gohier, were the discordant Direc- 
tory in power. 

The Sieyes party was influential, but not ener- 

* Memorial of St, Helena. 



THE WORLD*S GREATEST CONFLICT. 1 55 

getic. Siey^s "could not be a dangerous rival,"* 
while Republicans would not accept a master. 



XLII. 

AMONG great soldiers who were republican 
leaders Bonaparte might have found rivals. 
"Have Barras take care of the military party, par- 
alyze Bernadotte, Jourdan and Auge- 
reau and gain over Sieyes," advised The coup 
Fouche. An overture was made to d'etat. Nov 9, 
Barras, but he indicated that he ex- ^799- 

pected to be at the head of the new 
government. Bonaparte left him without giving 
him a hint of his own designs. That conversation, 
he said, was decisive. In a few minutes he was 
with Sieyes. He told Sieyes that for the last ten 
days he had been applied to by all parties, but that 
he had resolved to connect himself with that of 
Sieyes, and the majority of the Council of An- 
cients. They arranged on the eighth Brumaire, 
that between the fifteenth and the twentieth the 
revolution should occur. Bonaparte's emissaries 
alarmed Barras into suspense, and lulled the vigi- 
lance of Moulins and Gohier. 

The Banker Collet lent the conspirators two 
million francs. This put the conspirators' plan in 
motion. It matured with great rapidity. The 

* Fouchfe's Memoirs, Tome I. p. 68. 



156 THE WORLD^S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

garrison of Paris was quietly gained over. Partic- 
ular reliance was placed in two cavalry regiments 
that had served with Bonaparte in Italy. Murat, 
Lannes and Leclerc were employed to conciliate 
the leaders and principal officers. They soon won 
over Berthier, Marmont, Serruier, Lefevre, Moncey 
and even Moreau. 

Lucien Bonaparte and Regnier treated with a 
few deputies who were devoted to Sieyes. 

Thus a multitude of varying opinions and dif- 
fering interests concurred to facilitate the over- 
throw of the Constitution. 

The Minister of War discovered the plot. He 
informed Moulins and Gohier. He demanded the 
immediate arrest of Bonaparte. These two direc- 
tors could not believe the report. They had seen 
General Bonaparte almost every morning and 
evening ; his manners appeared so unpretending ; 
his advices uniformly so disinterested and open, 
they could not believe him treacherous. How 
could they imagine that a general who laid aside 
his military dress for that of a member of the 
learned Institute, who was never seen in public but 
in the society of men of science, literary charac- 
ters, lawyers and philosophers whom nobody 
feared, and who declaimed to his soldiers about 
Tarquin and Brutus, could be at the head of a 
deep-laid conspiracy to overturn the Republic and 
subject France to military government ? 

The plan was to dissolve both councils and the 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 5/ 

Executive Directory, and take supreme power. 
Sieyes had great influence in the Council of the 
Ancients. Lucien Bonaparte was President of the 
Council of Five Hundred. 

The conspiring members of the Ancients, and 
those whose weakness was known, were summoned 
to meet at five o'clock in the morning of the 
eighteenth ; all the other members were to meet 
at ten. In this fragmentary council Carnot urged 
the transfer of the Legislative Assembly to St. 
Cloud, and to commit the command of the army 
to Bonaparte. Those members not in the con- 
spiracy saw the snare. They strongly resisted ; 
but two hours before the rest of the deputies 
arrived, the decree was passed giving legal color 
to the gross usurpation.* General Bonaparte was 
seconded by many not in the conspiracy, who 
ignorantly believed they were aiding a legal meas- 
ure. He had summoned those officers and sol- 
diers on whom he relied ; each one believed the 
invitation for himself alone, and expected orders. f 

When the decree reached him he was surrounded 
by generals and officers and three regiments of 
cavalry, most of whom were ignorant of his pur- 
pose. He addressed them. He declared that he 
relied on their co-operation to save France ; he 
showed them his new commission, placed himself 
at the head of these officers and the fifteen hun- 
dred horsemen, ordered the generate sounded, and 

* Memoir by Napoleon, pp. 73-6. t Ibid, pp. 73-4. 



158 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

that the decree be published all over Paris as well. 

The speeches which he is represented to have 
made to the Ancients differ materially, but Bour- 
rienne, who was present, says that he made no 
speech, but delivered '^ a series of rambling, un- 
connected sentences and confused replies to the 
President's questions." 

Sieyes and Ducos resigned; Moulinsand Gohier 
protested. Gohier was arrested. Moulins escaped. 
Barras got away from Paris in hot haste. 

Fouche closed the barriers. It was important 
to the conspirators that France should know what 
was passing only from their reports. Bonaparte 
proclaimed to Paris that the Council of Ancients 
charged him to take measures for the surety of 
the national representation. He told the soldiers 
that he was commissioned to assist in the execu- 
tion of constitutional measures in favor of the 
people ; that liberty, victory and peace would soon 
replace France in the high rank she had occupied 
among the States of Europe. He promised a 
'* republic founded upon true liberty; upon civil 
liberty; upon national representation ;" he swore 
it. Each of the generals cried out " I swear it." 

In the evening another council was held. Many 
would have drawn back. It was too late. The 
more timid retired. Then temporary consuls were 
named ; Bonaparte, Sieyes, Roger Ducos. Sieyes 
proposed the arrest of forty members. "No," said 
Bonaparte; *' I have sworn this morning to protect 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 1 59 

the national representation ; I will not break my 
oath." 

The next day the road from Paris to St. Cloud 
was covered with troops commanded by Murat. 
Soldiers under Lannes guarded the Legislative 
Councils. Still the Parisians saw nothing but the 
execution of an apparently legal decree. So the 
two Councils in the midst of the troops were with- 
out means of support from without. They met. 
The debate became stormy. The conspirators 
were not in a majority. 

In the Council of Five Hundred a new oath to 
the Constitution was demanded. No member 
dared refuse. The proposal was loudly cheered 
and opposed. As Bonaparte has described it : 
"Yells and applause were heard in the hall. The 
moment was pressing. Many members pronounced 
the oath, and the influence of such discourse made 
itself felt among the troops; all spirits were in 
suspense ; the tide was against the conspirators ; 
the zealous became timid ; the timid had already 
changed banners ; there was not an instant to 
lose." * Bonaparte was in the greatest peril. 

Then Bonaparte arrived from the Council of 
Ancients, followed by a company of grenadiers. 
The instant the deputies saw him and his military 
escort they broke out into the wildest disorder. 
The whole body stood up and expressed by loud 
shouts and execrations their resentment at this 

* Memoir by Napoleon, Vol. I, p. 87. 



l60 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

invasion of their sacred privileges ; this profana- 
tion of the temple of the law. " You violate 
the sanctuary of the Law, retire," cried many 
deputies. 

Bonaparte tried to speak from the tribune. From 
all parts he heard repeated cries : '' Vif la ConstiUc- 
tion ! Vif la Repitblique !'' From all sides the 
invective 'M bas Cro7nwell!'' ''A has V Dicta- 
tor !^' ^^ Tyrant ! You make war on your coun- 
try!'' cried Arena, and showed his poniard. The 
grenadiers were alarmed. They traversed the hall 
to protect their general. He threw himself into 
their arms ; they carried him out. Bonaparte, the 
bold usurper, was panic-stricken. In a frenzy 
of defeat he remounted his horse and galloped 
wildly away, crying to the soldiers, ''They have 
attempted my life ! " 

But for the prompt action of Murat at this 
crisis, the subsequent destiny of Bonaparte had 
all been changed. The Consulate ; the Empire 
would never have been ; the history of Europe for 
the next fifteen years would all have been differ- 
ent. Other men would have been at the head of 
France ; other soldiers would have led her armies ; 
while Bonaparte would, probably, have suffered 
punishment as a political felon for his attempt to 
assassinate the Republic. The Second Empire, 
too, would never have existed. There would have 
been no Austerlitz and no Waterloo ; no Magenta 
and no Sedan. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. l6l 

But at this, one of the most critical moments of 
his eventful career, his presence of mind appears 
to have totally failed him. He was saved by the 
decisive energy of Murat, who rode up to him, 
and, calling out that it is not fitting that the con- 
queror of so many potent enemies should be over- 
come by a few noisy blockheads, turned his horse's 
head toward the hall and led him into the midst of 
the soldiers, who, less frightened than their general, 
still remained around it. 

The most horrible tumult continued in the hall. 
Lucien Bonaparte, the President, was loudly re- 
quired to put the vote for the outlawry of his 
brother. Vainly Lucien entreated a hearing. He 
then attempted to dissolve the meeting. Leaping 
from his chair, he threw off his official dress and 
was instantly hurried away by the soldiers. He 
joined Murat and General Bonaparte, and in his 
character as President, applied formally for a guard 
to enable him to dissolve the assembly. 

General Bonaparte ordered Murat to march into 
the hall. Five hundred soldiers entered. " I in- 
vite you to retire ; we can no longer answer for 
the security of the Council," said a colonel to the 
deputies. The soldiers pushed the deputies before 
them ; their red cloaks and hats gradually dis- 
appeared ; the most obdurate scarcely resisted ; 
many passed out by the windows near the ground. 

A small number of deputies favorable to the 
usurpation were soon assembled. They passed a 



l62 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 

decree constituting a consular executive commis- 
sion, composed of Bonaparte, Sieyes, and Ducos, 
invested with complete dictatorial power. A com- 
mission of twenty-five was selected in each Council 
to assist the executive power. 

Thus the reign of assemblies was for a long 
time ended in France. The Constitution of the 
year Three was abrogated. On that day Bonaparte 
and Sieyes declared there should be no oppression ; 
no proscription ; on the very next day they ban- 
ished fifty-nine deputies without trial : thirty-seven 
to Guiana, and twenty-two to Oleron. Bonaparte 
placed the most respectable names with the worst, 
hoping to degrade them by this association. This 
mean policy he usually pursued. 

The desire of riches, honors, employment, and 
the terror inspired by his military power ; the fear 
of being thus confounded with bad characters ; the 
absence of public discussion ; the lack of means of 
knowing the real opinions of others ; the suppres- 
sion of all opportunity for choice ; the subjection 
of the press, all aided to throw into Bonaparte's 
train many, till then, sincere lovers of liberty. 

Sieyes wrote the new Constitution. Five mil- 
lions of electors in primary assemblies were to 
prepare a department list of fifty thousand, and 
these in turn were to elect a national list of five 
thousand alone capable of becoming agents of 
the executive power. Municipal and department 
officers were to be chosen in similar manner. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 63 

A conservative Senate of eighty members, called 
guardians of the public liberties — a misnomer — 
were to appoint a Tribunate of one hundred mem- 
bers, who could only discuss such proposals as the 
Government should make ; and a Corps Legisla- 
tive who were to vote without power to debate on 
measures submitted by the Council of State and 
discussed by the Tribunate. Bonaparte, Cam- 
baceres and Lebrun were made Consuls. Sieyes, 
Ducos, Cambaceres and Lebrun chose the senators. 
Bonaparte appointed a Council of State. New 
laws were voted rapidly. The journals, except 
thirteen, were suppressed. It was a fine irony 
that called the Senate the guardian of liberties, 
for liberty had ceased. 

Bonaparte ruled with firm hand. He abrogated 
several revolutionary laws, amalgamated different 
parts, and by degrees consolidated a complete des- 
potism ; all power was in his hands. He caused 
the suppression of the Vendean and Chouan insur- 
rection in the west, and perfidiously caused the 
leader, Frotte, to be killed. The new constitution 
was proclaimed December 13, 1799. 



164 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 



XLIII. 

OUR century began in war. The nations 
hated each other. 
Only Americans, British and Swiss had guar- 
anteed rights. Elsewhere was abso- 
When this lutc monarchy without constitutions 
Century or liberty or personal security, 
began. Sovereigns ruled at will over life, 

liberty, property. Persons were not 
free ; hardly owned their own bodies. Labor en- 
riched nobles, but not laborers. 

Only Denmark and four American States had 
forbidden the slave trade. 

Labor took part in ruling only by paying taxes. 
The few ruled. 

When, in 1805-9, Napoleon defeated Austria, 
the Austrians submitted readily, because it was 
not a war between peoples or of the people, but of 
rulers. 

Such were wars then. Victory, defeat, were 
mere change of masters. The people gained noth- 
ing. So Europe itself did not rise against Napoleon 
till it became a war of the people. 

In war the pawns were human lives ; the prizes 
were not human happiness. Had Austria and 
Russia overthrown Napoleon at Austerlitz, or had 
he destroyed them at Leipsic, it would have been 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 65 

only the triumph of one arbitrary ruler instead of 
another. Content, comfort, protection, progress, 
prosperity, happiness, the most exalted blessings, 
would have had no gain. 

The great Jenner blessed mankind more than did 
all Napoleon's wars. James Watt the illustrious, 
with his steam-engine helped our race more than 
a thousand Caesars. Fitch, Miller, Symonton and 
Fulton's steamboat is worth more than ten thou- 
sand Alexanders. 

In 1 801, no national Parliament represented a 
whole people. The American did not represent 
the colored one fifth of the people, nor the British 
the common class. The French Chambers were 
ruled by the man who appointed them — Bona- 
parte. Even Swiss freedom had fallen under his 
dictation. 

Till 1789 the French had no rights. Kings and 
the high clergy and nobles, only two per cent, of the 
French, gave hard rule to the ninety-eight per 
cent. 

The two per cent, owned two thirds of the land, 
but their property was exempt from tax, except 
two per cent, on crops. The poorer class paid all 
other taxes. 

The king, his mistress or his favorite could send 
an innocent person to prison for life without trial. 
The misery of the poor ; their grinding taxes; the 
wrongs received from kings and nobles, goaded 
them to agony ; drove them to resistance ; gave 



1 66 THE world's greatest conflict. 

them fury. Kings and the higher class caused the 
bloody Revolution ; incited the people to it. Had 
rule been kind, just, no revolt would have come. 

The "Reign of Terror" was done, not by France, 
but by a criminal minority that gained an advantage 
of the better France. 

The Revolution was " the outbreak of a people, 
down-trodden, starved, insulted, spurned and 
scorned till humanity could bear no more." 
Frenchmen could not always beat marshes that 
nobles might sleep. 

Everything elastic will rebound. So did France 
from bad king at one extreme to bad mob, the 
other extreme. Despotism was atrocious, recoil 
was terrible. Former victims sought vengeance. 

It was a cruel period : of war, privateers, press- 
gangs, slave trade, slavery, serfdom, intolerance, 
anti-neutral rights, brute force, war on trade, 
denial of manhood rights, debasement of labor. 

On the day the invaders who came to restore 
despotism were defeated at Valmy, September 
20th, 1792, the Assem.bly had declared France a 
Republic. 

Revolutionary France was never a free Repub- 
lican Democracy. Democracy is the rule of the 
people, by the people, for the people.* France 
was not this. A republic is rule by freely chosen 
representatives of the people. The Terror was 
not that. 

* Abraham Lincoln. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 6/ 

Most political convulsions are to benefit the 
rulers ; few are for the good of the commons. 
The British, American and French Revolutions 
were exceptions. 

By 1801, France, Genoa, Holland and the 
'' Cisalpine Republic " had won constitutions, but 
were neither democracies nor republics in fact. 

In 1 80 1 every prominent hereditary monarch, 
except the Sultan Selim the Third, was insane, 
stupid or narrow-minded. George the Third of 
England had all these traits ; insane at times, 
stupid, small-minded always. He took active part 
in ruling. Since his day England has much pro- 
gressed. Since the Reform Act of 1832 the 
people control Parliament, Parliament controls the 
ministry, and the ministry controls the sovereign. 
George was an obstacle to the good of that grand 
nation. 

Paul, Emperor of Russia, was half crazy, violent, 
cruel. His was a bad reign. 

Frederick William, King of Prussia, lacked 
dignity, energy, decision, ability ; he was unfit 
to reign. 

PVancis the Second, Emperor of Germany, 
ruler of Austria, was incapable as a leader. 
Nature intended him for a common peasant. 
Birth made a great blunder when it made him 
a ruler. 

Gustavus the Fourth misruled Sweden. His 
senators were merely to give advice. He was 



1 68 THE world's greatest conflict. 

rash, erratic ; so unfitted to Sweden that his peo- 
ple in 1809 expelled him for his foolishness. 

Denmark's king, Christian the Seventh, was 
insane from his excesses. Prince Frederick was 
regent from 1784 to 1808, when he became king. 
The able Bernstordf was minister. In his time 
serfdom and monopolies were abolished, and first 
in Europe, the slave trade prohibited. 

In Spain Charles the Third died, 1788. The 
heir to the throne was an idiot ; another disa- 
greement between Nature and heredity. The 
heir was set aside. The king's immoral, worth- 
less second son became Charles the Fourth. 
" He was the jest of the Queen and her favor- 
ites." * ** Manuel Godoy, ' Prince of Peace,' the 
worthless Queen's favorite, ruled : a weak minis- 
ter, under whom everything became venal." f 

Queen Maria of Portugal was insane. Her son, 
Joam, became regent, 1799. Government, army, 
finance, trade were deplorable. War with France 
ended in 1801. 

In Naples Ferdinand the First was little better 
than his brother Charles of Spain. In 1798 he 
ran away, while the lazzaroni fought the French for 
three days. The victorious French declared the 
*' Parthenopean Republic" (which fell in 1799). 
Then Ferdinand bought peace of France and 
received sixteen thousand French troops. 

Rome had no trade, no navy, no incentives to 

* Sir Walter Scott. t Ibid. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 169 

labor. The Pope ruled. The officials were priests. 
They encouraged celibacy and beggary. Napo- 
leon had declared it a '' republic," but it fell again 
to its old rulers in 1799. 

While Bonaparte was gone to Egypt in 1799, 
Austria aided by Russia reconquered all Northern 
Italy. 

Austria held Venice. France retook Piedmont, 
Tuscany, Parma, Genoa, Lucca and Rome in Bona- 
parte's campaign of 1800. 

Holland was liberated from its Stadtholder by 
the French under Pichegru, in 1795. It took its 
old constitution and made alliance with France. 
The French ruled it, which caused England to 
seize its colonies. It was the ''Batavian Republic." 

The German Emperor Joseph the Second had 
made reforms before 1789. Belgium, offended, 
revolted, formed the '' United States of Belgium " 
in 1790, but yielded to Joseph's successor, Leo- 
pold the Second, in 1791. In 1794, in war with 
Austria, the French won Belgium in their victory 
at Fleurus. 

In Switzerland the PYench overthrew the old 
Helvetic Confederacy, in 1798, and forced a 
new order of affairs. Revolutions followed each 
other for six years. Napoleon controlled it from 
1799 to 1 8 14. 

The Ionian Isles were subdued by Turkey and 
Russia and made the "Republic of the Seven 
Islands" in 1800. 



1/0 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

Selim the Third was Sultan of Turkey from 
1789 till 1807. In 1788 Russia and Austria tried 
to divide Turkey. But the Austrians met defeat, 
while Russia got the country beyond the Dniester. 
The French attacked Egypt in 1798. 

In 1 701 Britain ruled beyond ocean perhaps 
3,000,000 people ; in 1801 about 100,000,000. 

* In 1 801 the kingdom's population was 
16,319,444; its exports were ^180,000,000; not 
two thirds per head as much as that of the 
United States. Brief peace in 1802 increased it, 
but war in 1803 sent it still lower. 

England's population,! a. d. 450, was reckoned at 
1,500,000. In 616 years it increased to 2,150,000, 
in 1066, only 431 per cent. During the Norman 
period, 1066 to 11 54 — 88 years — it gained to 
3,350,000 or 55j-% per cent. Under the Plantag- 
enets, 321 years to 1485 it became 4,000,000 ; barely 
6J per cent, for each century. In the Tudor, 118 
years to 1603, it rose to 5,000,000 ; about 25 per 
cent, increase. This is England without Wales. 

In the next two centuries to 1801, the increase 
was about 3,609,000; about 36 per cent, a century. 
From 1801 to 1881, it gained to the astonishing 
increase of 1851 per cent, to 24,608,391 ; an increase 
above two and three tenths per cent, a year ; a 
rate larger each four years than any rate per cent- 
ury prior to 1485, except in the Norman period. 

* Census. t J. Fisher's Landholding in England, p. 5. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. I /I 



XLIV. 

JANUARY I, 1801, Britain and Ireland became 
one kingdom. Because Russia, Sweden and 
Denmark united to resist British search of their 
ships at sea, England embargoed their 

War and riot. VCSSCls. 

1800. Denmark shut out the English 

from the Elbe. Prussia occupied 

free Bremen and George the Third's Hanover. 

England took Denmark's and Sweden's West 

India Islands. 

Admirals Parker and Nelson destroyed most of 
the Danish fleet, and the Russians murdered their 
Czar Paul. This stopped the war, broke the 
union, and peace was made, each giving up what 
had been taken. 

The peace of Luneville, February 9, 1801, left 
only France and Britain at war. It separated 
Austria and the Cisalpine by the Adige, left all 
west of the Rhine to France, gave up part of Ger- 
many as spoils to be divided among rulers by 
Bonaparte and the Czar. Malta was to go to its 
knights of St. John. 

England's distress in 1800 was frightful. 
Small harvests and useless war made famine. 
Still the ministry harassed neutral ships, thus 
frightening away cargoes of needed food. Any 



172 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

American or English ship was liable to lose its 
seamen, forcibly taken to serve in the British 
navy. 

Wheat was four dollars a bushel. Bread mobs 
rioted. Hunger was raging. 

By December it was worse. Wheat was higher, 
hunger more severe, mobs more angry. The min- 
istry suspended the great safety of Britons — the 
habeas corpus — so as to make arbitrary arrests. 
But famine grew stronger ; its riots gave wild 
alarm for social danger. 

By the spring of 1801 it was still worse ; bread 
still higher, the poor still poorer. The poor rate 
took twenty-five million dollars ; it had doubled in 
eighteen years. 

Men were not safe; press gangs prowled and 
kidnaped ; men disappeared to perish in the navy 
abroad. British liberty was limited ; imports of 
food turned the balance of trade against this 
greatest of trading nations. 

Pitt's war and Pitt's prodigality had sent abroad 
England's gold and silver to hire nations to fight 
France. 

Gurth, thrall of Cedric, with iron collar, was 
less miserable than George the Third's press-gang 
victims. Gurth, the slave, had friends around 
him ; the pressed man had none ; Gurth was safe 
from harm ; the pressed man had many harms. 
Gurth had the free woods and fields ; the pressed 
man's hammock hung on deck in the cold winds 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 73 

of Northern seas, or perhaps was below decks in 
the stifling heat of the Indies. Gurth slept peace- 
fully at night ; the pressed man was exposed to 
all the night storms and gales and billows and 
fevers of African lagoons. 

Happily progress has swept such governments 
as that of George the Third from Britain. 



XLV. 

IRELAND was never conquered by Romans or 
Northmen. Many small and five principal 
tribes once existed. Roderic O'Connor of Con- 
naught was nominal head. 

McMurrough, King of Leinster, Ireland, 
was, for offense, deposed. To recover 
power he engaged Norman knights, under Strong- 
bow, who then married his daughter, usurped rule, 
beat Roderic himself, seized much land and divi- 
ded it among his co-robbers. 

The Irish were never under the see of Rome 
till Pope Adrian the Third, by a Bull, in 1 1 56, ex- 
horted Henry the Second of England to invade 
Ireland to extirpate vice and wickedness, and 
compel natives to pay to the Pope a penny a year 
for every house. The Pope gave entire authority 
to Henry, and commanded obedience to him as 
their king. 

Henry made a progress, received homage, and 



1/4 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

shortly returned to England, leaving Strongbow 
as his seneschal. Law and equity were soon 
little known. *' Palatinates were erected in favor 
of the new adventurers, independent authority 
conferred ; the natives, never fully subdued, re- 
tained their animosities against their conquerors ; 
their hatred was retaliated by like injuries." * 

Under Henry the Eighth '' the English law 
courts, ignoring the Irish custom by which the 
land belonged to the tribe at large, regarded the 
chiefs as the sole proprietors." f Thus England 
originated Irish landlords. 

'' Landlordism kept the bulk of the people in 
worse than Egyptian bondage ; held them in igno- 
rance of the real sources of their misery ; exacted 
from them the highest rent that could be obtained 
by subdivision of the land ; and by this multipli- 
cation of small holdings, left them to multiply 
upon the barest amount of subsistence, and with 
the total absence of the ordinary decencies and 
comforts of the humblest life." J 

Three fourths were Catholics, and English law 
of 1 69 1 excluded Catholics from Irish parliament. 
The English Act of 1760 took away their right 
of voting. 

By act of Queen Anne, Irish Catholics were 
excluded from civil rights, civil service, army and 

* Hume's History of England, Vol. I. p. 333. 

t Green's (English) History of England, p. 204. 

t Knight's (English) History of England, Vol. VIL p. 115. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 75 

navy commissions, from magistracy, from fran- 
chise, from any part in Irish government. A 
Catholic could not be a lawyer ; could not defend 
a Catholic in court. Education was forbidden. 
Teaching a Catholic school or family was felony. 
Catholics could not buy or inherit land ; they 
could rent only on uncertain tenure, and must pay 
rackrent for their own improvements. 

Law bribed children to betray parents. A child, 
by becoming Protestant, could dispossess his 
father and take his property at once. 

English law shut out Irish cattle from English 
market, forbade Irish products foreign market, hin- 
dered Irish manufactures, burdened Irish industry, 
barred its progress, prevented its prosperity. 

This system kept the Irish very poor and very 
hopeless. 

The Irish parliament in Dublin could initiate 
no business. All must first be approved by the 
British ministry. It was merely a tool of the min- 
istry. It did not represent Ireland or the Irish. 

Said Grattan (1793) : '' Of three hundred mem- 
bers, above two hundred are returned by individ- 
uals ; from forty to fifty are returned by ten 
persons ; several burroughs have no resident 
elector at all" ; two thirds were chosen by less 
than one hundred persons. 

The Irish rebelled in 1798. The revolt was 
forcibly suppressed. 

By persuasion, pressure and money, George 



1/6 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

the Third and Pitt obtained a vote of this parlia- 
ment for union with Great Britain. The British 
Parliament passed the Act January i, 1801, and 
Britain and Ireland became one kingdom with one 
parliament, with twenty-eight Irish temporal, and 
four Protestant church peers, and one hundred 
Irish members of the House of Commons. 

Revenue taxes were proportioned fifteen for 
Britain to two for Ireland, though Ireland was 
half as populous as Great Britain. 

Ireland was to have the same trade and naviga- 
tion laws, and treaty rights ; it kept its law courts, 
and had appeal and writ of error to the House of 
Lords. 

Pitt prepared to give to Catholics all the rights 
of Britons. The king refused. They must still 
be excluded from corporations, Parliament, and 
from army and navy office. 

*' That reconciliation of races and sects without 
which the Union could exist only in name, was not 
accomplished."* 

* Macaulay. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. I// 



XLVI. 

IN 1801 Germany was the fifty-fourth part of 
Europe : 208,613 square miles. The German 
Empire had three Chambers, (i) Electoral col- 
lege of eight votes, held by the Arch- 
bishops of Mentz, Cologne and Germany. 
Treves, and the electors who were 
sovereigns of Bohemia, Bavaria, Saxony, Branden- 
burg, and Brunswick-Luneberg or Hanover. (2) 
College of Princes of the Empire, spiritual and 
temporal, each with a vote. (3) Fourteen Rhen- 
ish and thirty-seven Swabian free, imperial cities, 
each with a vote. These were the Diet. 

The Emperor was referee. He could refuse 
sanction, but could not modify decisions. Meet- 
ings were usually called by the Emperor at Ratis- 
bon twice a year. The Diet could make laws, 
war, peace or taxes. Aulic Council and Cameral 
decided disputes between members. 

Forty-four free towns were little republics, each 
with local rule. 

The Emperor had little power ; the Diet much. 
Yet each of nearly one hundred ruling nobles was 
absolute in his domain. Nobility was strict caste ; 
a poor noble would not have married the richest 
plebeian heiress. The High Church places were 
held by hereditary aristocracy. Pride of birth 



1/8 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

was extreme. Nobles held extreme power to tax, 
or use or sell the service of common people, as 
several sold their subjects to George the Third to 
fight Americans in 1777.* 

A noble's children are nobles, while in England 
only the oldest son is a noble. British peers are 
under law ; continental nobles were above law. 
Only nobles could hold army or navy office. 
British peerage and office are open to all to 
aspire. 

Till Von Stein's reforms in Prussia, began in 
1807, a commoner could not buy a noble's land. 
Nobles' property was exempt from land tax, which 
made the tax heavier on commoners. Military 
flogging was allowed till 1808-9. Free jury trial 
was unknown. Popular education, now so com- 
plete, did not exist. Then, as now, were three 
classes : nobles, burghers and peasants ; profes- 
sional men, merchants, artists and many public 
officers are burghers. 

February 3, 1801, Pitt proposed to resign, know- 
ing that the king would ''influence others on the 
Catholic question," but promised his assistance to 
a new ministry. George accepted. 

For weeks, till March 7, George was again 
insane. When his mind returned, he accused 
Pitt of making him ill. Pitt's answer was ''most 
dutiful, humble, contrite." He said he would give 
up the Catholic question. f That Pitt lacked 

* Bancroft, Vol. V. p. 12. t Pitt to George, March, 1801. 



THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. I/Q 

conscience is here strongly indicated. Pitt, who 
did not wince at the world's misery from the 
bloodshed which he instigated and subsidized, be- 
trayed his own measure, failed in his own promise 
to a great people, to please this George of whom 
Thackeray says : " He bribed ; he bullied ; he 
darkly dissembled on occasion ; he exercised a 
slippery perseverance and a vindictive resolu- 
lution,"* At the moment when so weak toward 
George, Pitt was planning the bloody Copenhagen 
calamity, and the useless Egyptian campaign of 
1 80 1, though the French in Egypt had offered to 
surrender and be sent to France. He left office 
March 14, 1801. With him went out Lord Gren- 
ville, whose advice, taken by George, lost England 
her American colonies, from the Atlantic to the 
Mississippi, and whose ill-mannered reply to Bona- 
parte's overtures for peace in 1799 angered both 
English and French. The old Whig leaders re- 
tired also (Wyndham and Spencer). 

A just and able king would have made a cabinet 
of the wisest and ablest men. But George was 
obstinate. He called " up the rear rank of the old 
ministry to form the front rank of the new minis- 
try. In an age preeminently fruitful of parlia- 
mentary talents, a cabinet was formed, containing 
hardly a single man who, in parliamentary talents, 
could be considered as even of the second rate."t 

They relied on Pitt ; he took his seat behind 

* Thackeray, George the Third, t Macaulay, Life of Pitt. 



l80 THE world's greatest CONFLICT, 

them ; was still the active power of their Tory 
ministry. 

England saw the situation with dismay. New 
taxes, famine, bread riots, the coin gone to pay 
foreign subsidies. British cargoes, for less danger, 
were seeking American vessels ; trade was suffer- 
ing; press gangs busy; the British stood utterly 
alone; the treaty of Luneville (February 9, 1801) 
had given Europe peace, but George and Pitt had 
held aloof. Not a nation of the world sympathized 
with George and Pitt. 

The new premier, Henry Addington, was not an 
able man. He released men arrested arbitrarily 
by Pitt, but in April he again suspended habeas 
corpus^ and made war on free British meetings and 
freedom of speech. 



XLVII. 

AT sea every nation now has control over its 
public and private vessels and punishes 
crime committed on them. No nation has a right 
to visit or search the vessels of 
The Right of another nation at sea. 
Search. Then George the Third claimed 

the right to stop, board and search the 
private ships of any nation, and take away such 
seamen as were believed to be British born, and 
such of the cargo as he called contraband. By 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. l8l 

force he exercised this dangerous, odious power 
in defiance of laws, protests, rights and interests 
of other nations. He seized ships, impressed sea- 
men from them, took away cargoes, and turned 
aside vessels from their voyages. 

Nations engaged in commerce, injured, insul- 
ted, were indignant. In time of peace — July, 
1799 — the Danish frigate Freya, attempting to 
defend its convoy, was captured and taken as a 
prize to England. 



XLVIII. 

IN 1808 Russia had 41,403,200 people, or 
32,129,200, in Europe, and 9,274,000 in Asia. 
Seven million people had been taken 
from Poland and Turkey since 1773. Russia, in 

Nature had forgotten to endow iSoo. 

the Czar Paul with manly heart and 
mind. Violent, ignorant, he hated his mother, 
Catherine the Second, and aimed to make his rule 
different from hers. At first he raised hope by 
disgracing his father's murderers, and pardoning 
Polish prisoners. But no department was free 
from his frivolous meddling ; no class escaped his 
arbitrary mischief ; he irritated the soldiers ; he 
offended the nobles. His ministers, his wife, his 
children, were not safe from his fury. He guarded 
his palace as a fortress. He filled the prisons. 



1 82 THE WORLD*S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

Executions were frequent! He exiled many per- 
sons to Siberia. He was absolute monarch and his 
people were powerless to restrain his vicious 
course. A Russian was as helpless as a Protes- 
tant in Spain, a Catholic in Ireland, a Jew in 
England, a Mussulman in Portugal, a Christian 
at Stamboul ; not quite as hopeless as a Jew in 
Germany or a slave in Carolina. 

Russia had but two classes : nobles and com- 
mons ; as England had two classes, the govern- 
ing and the governed. In much of Europe was 
but one class ; the governed. 

Russians needed British commerce to exchange 
raw produce for goods. Enraged by the Czar's 
spoil of English vessels, and by his many vexa- 
tious acts, they remonstrated. Paul threatened 
them with exile ; he punished, exiled, impris- 
oned ; nobody was safe. One night men entered 
his palace. Paul was asleep. Two Hungarians 
guarded his bedroom. They resisted, but no help 
came ; nobody wanted to defend the crazy tyrant ; 
the Hungarians, seeing numbers against them, 
ran off; Paul took refuge behind a screen. Some- 
body held out a paper and said : 

" Here is your abdication ; sign it and I will 
answer for your life." 

Paul resisted ; the light fell ; somebody tight- 
ened a scarf around his neck, gave him a blow on 
the head. When light was brought Paul was 
dead. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 183 

With him fell the Northern coalition, nine days 
before the calamity of Copenhagen. 

A few days later Paul's son, Alexander the 
First, was crowned Emperor. Madame Bonneuil 
wrote : " Before him marched his grandfather's 
murderers, by his side his father's, and behind 
him his own." 



XLIX. 

THE Danish fleet, six ships of the line, 
eleven floating batteries, and some smaller 
vessels, were, in time of peace, attacked by 
Admiral Parker and Vice-Admiral 
Nelson, with eighteen ships of the calamity of 
line and several frigates and smaller Copenhagen, 
vessels, and destroyed. It was vie- ^prii i, isoi. 
tory to superior force ; a great outrage 
when war had not been declared. The Danes 
made brave defense. Pitt planned this cruelty 
when minister. Denmark, Sweden and Russia 
would have been peaceful if only England would 
let alone their ships and seamen. This alone was 
why they were preparing for war, that the English 
seized their ships and sailors. The new Czar, 
Alexander, made a treaty with Britain in June. 
Bonaparte sought supremacy ; but England's min- 
istry wanted to be absolute at sea, the highway of 
nations that should be free. 



1^4 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 



L. 



BERNSTORFF improved the condition of 
the Danes, allowed a free press, and estab- 
lished courts of conciliation ; respectable men 
were to examine each case of conten- 

Denmark. tion, givc dccisions legal only on 
consent of both parties, either of 
whom is at liberty still to try his cause in the 
regular courts. During three years before this 
peacemakers' law, 25,521 causes were begun in the 
law courts ; in the next three years only 9,653, a 
difference of 15,863 law suits saved. In Holland 
this system had good results. 

A few peasants had freeholds ; most of them 
were tenants ; landlords furnished the first stock 
and took pay in produce, labor or money. Bern- 
storff enabled many to buy their land. 

In 1796 the army was 23,654 regulars, and 
50,880 militia. In 1801 the whole navy was 
twenty-two line ships, ten frigates and some small 
vessels. 

Specie was scarce ; too much paper money 
issued. Potatoes, after great objections, had be- 
come a common crop. About seventy-five vessels, 
of forty to two hundred tons, had its West India 
trade. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 85 



LI. 



IN March, 1801, British and Turkish troops 
and a British squadron went to Egypt. The 
French, badly scattered, were defeated near 
Alexandria, March 21. Attacked by 
superior force, Bellard surrendered at a wanton 
Cairo, and the other French at Alex- war. Egypt, 
andria, August 30, on condition of iSoi. 

safe conveyance to France. Thus, 
with great expense of life and treasure, George got 
precisely what he and Pitt had stupidly refused 
a year and a half before. And this vast expense 
when England was starving ! 



LII. 



EIGHTEEN- HUNDRED- AND-ONE was 
again a year of short crops. England 
suffered terribly. The people were uneasy. They 
rioted for bread. 

Shareholders of the Bank of Eng- Famine, 
land received five per cent, bonus 
besides seven per cent, interest ; but the people 
were hungry. 

The people wanted peace and food. They 
wanted the bread that the expense of the useless 



1 86 THE world's greatest conflict. 

Egypt war would have bought. England was in 
alarm. What might not be feared from starving 
poor men ? 

Import of food was invited by high bounties. 
Still George's officers searched neutral ships and 
George wondered why American and Russian 
ships did not bring a full supply of wheat. 

Early in 1801, when George was destroying 
Denmark's navy, because Denmark wished to pro- 
tect peaceful commerce, English mobs paraded 
Windsor streets before George's palace windows. 
They wanted food. The militia was brought out. 
Bayonets were paraded. But somehow bayonets 
did not satisfy British hunger. The mob broke 
the baker's windows. But British ships that 
might have brought food were carrying forces to 
attack peaceful Copenhagen. 



LIII. 

IN 1795 Holland passed from the influence of 
England and Austria to the power of France. 
When the French army arrived, the Patriots, the 
worthy and thrifty middle class, ob- 
Hoiiand. taincd ascendency. Could they have 
retained it, happy it would have been 
for Holland. France acknowledged its independ- 
ence, as the Batavian Republic, May 16, 1795. 
France received it as an allv, but, taking advan- 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 8/ 

tage of its disagreeing parties, soon subjected it, 
practically, to the condition of a province. Sel- 
dom was country so harassed by friends. It 
vacillated between a united and a federal republic ; 
its late ally, England, deprived it of its trade, 
seized its colonies, blockaded its coasts, barred it 
even from its own valuable coast fisheries, and de- 
stroyed much of its fleet. France constantly in- 
terfered in its affairs, exacted large sums of money, 
compelled the Dutch to feed, clothe and pay a 
French army in Holland, freely exposed and lost 
Dutch ships to the stronger British. 

Political changes in Paris were repeated in Hol- 
land. It had its Directory. Then Consul Bona- 
parte gave it a constitution like that of France, 
October 17, 1800, with a President to be chosen 
every three months. 

Both Dutch Chambers rejected it. The sub- 
servient Dutch Directory expelled them from 
their halls. 

The Constitution was then submitted to a ple- 
biscit. Of the 416,419 citizens who were voters, 
52,219 voted against it ; the rest did not vote at 
all ; their silence was counted as consent ; the 
Constitution was proclaimed as adopted. Holland 
was helpless. It was compelled to submit. Bona- 
parte announced this fraudulent instrument as 
"the expressed will of an independent people." * 

In 1 80 1 another change gave the executive power 

* Bonaparte to Legislative Body, October, 1800. 



1 88 THE world's greatest conflict. 

to a college of twelve persons, the legislative to 
thirty-five persons, to assemble twice each year. 
This form, introduced with difficulty, produced 
continual party contests. 

Holland and Belgium, long the victims of Spanish 
misrule, had been for generations tyrannized by the 
house of Austria, whose only claim was heredity. 
It was as liberators that the French army appeared 
in 1795. It was from the foreign power of Aus- 
tria that the French rescued them. Up to 1800 
France had no conquest of the Dutch and Belgi- 
ans themselves, nor of the Italians. It was in 
favor of the former Austrian unloved oppressor 
that George and Pitt, disregarding the advice of 
great British statesmen, made their bloody inter- 
ference in 1 793-1 802 and 1805. But England 
then had not a representative parliament. 

In early times the Romans noticed the weaving 
and love of trade of Belgium. [Gallia Belgtca.'] 
The middle of the thirteenth century saw it dis- 
tinguished for industry. After 1492 Antwerp 
took the lead, and was regarded as a northern 
Venice. The terribly oppressive Spanish fanatic 
rule, with its cruel wars in recognition of the bar- 
barism that a monarch owns his people and has 
divine right to rule, destroyed its great prosperity ; 
its important river, the Scheldt, was actually closed 
to navigation ; it was a beneficent result of the 
French Revolution that it restored its natural uses. 
Napoleon restored and greatly enlarged the im- 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 89 

portant harbor of Antwerp. Belgium only learned 
the English mode of smelting iron with coke in 
1816; now for iron it ranks next to England. 

LIV. 

FOR three years ending with December, 1795, 
the Bank of England notes averaged 
^11,975,573. December, 1800, it had risen to 
£ 1 5,450,070, a very great excess above 
its former average before suspension Money, 
of specie. In the height of bread 
famine, 1801, a reduction of ;£" 1,500,000 was made. 
Its bills are the principal means of payments. 
So this strange reduction, made because the min- 
istry had forced its credit, added to the horrors of 
famine, by lack of currency. 

LV. 

THAT famine year, less distilled and fer- 
mented liquors were used ; about half the 
amount of 1803 or 185 1. The kingdom used 
8,800,840 gallons — about a half-gallon 
a head ; the Irish alone used less Liquors, 
than a third of a gallon per head, 
which indicates that the Irish were then less in- 
temperate than their neighbors. In all countries, 
at that period, alcoholic liquors were used as a 
beverage. 



190 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 



LVI. 

LUNEVILLE peace (February 9, 1801) left 
France no enemy but Great Britain. 
Bonaparte prepared his gunboat fleet at Bou- 
logne. He would compel Italy, Hol- 
invasion. land, Spain and Portugal to aid him. 
Britain held the channel. That was her 
safety. Lost even for a few days, the French army 
might cross ; it would be a gigantic struggle, with 
ages of rivalry to sharpen the tremendous contest. 
The British ministry chose to continue the war 
against Bonaparte ; they believed that England 
was struggling, not for victory merely, but for her 
very existence. It was also the rivalry that had 
continued for centuries ; Englishmen and French 
against each other. 



LVII. 

BONAPARTE prompted Spain to war on 
Portugal, February 22, 1801. Naples had 
to shut out English ships. Spain held all South 
America except Brazil and part of 
Bad Charles Guiana, all North America west of 
the Fourth. the Mississippi, and Florida, Cuba 
and other countries. Yet Charles 
gave to Bonaparte, Parma, five ships of war, a large 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. IQI 

sum of money and Louisiana, in exchange for the 
title ''King of Etruria"for his son-in-law, the boy 
duke of Parma. It was a treacherous deed, a 
crime, an embezzlement. For this Charles also 
agreed to close Portugal to English trade. 

The new boy king was a simple lad, and Bona- 
parte ruled Etruria just as before ; so he got 
Spain's property for nothing, and Spain got noth- 
ing but the disgrace. Tuscany did not belong to 
Bonaparte or to France ; he had traded what was 
not his ; he offered to give Lucca also, which was 
not his, to this boy for three of Spain's frigates, and 
six " ships of war well equipped," thus to sell 
another independent State.* This Bonaparte, 
head of a so-called Republic, had made a king ! 



LVIIL 

BRITAIN was first in commerce, the United 
States next. The American-British trade 
was then, as now, the richest trade in the world. 
In 1801 the United States were 

but sixteen, with about 4,500,000 commerce and 

whites and 1,000,000 colored persons ; Population, 
about one third of the 16,319,444 of 
Great Britain and Ireland, or a little above half 
Spain's 10,600,000, or Prussia's 9,500,000, one 
fifth of France's 27,349,000, or Austria's 27,600,000. 

* Bonaparte, to Talleyrand; March 2, 1801, 



192 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

The square miles of area of the United States 
was 820,000, more than doubled by purchase of Lou- 
isiana Territory in 1803, with 930,928 ; increased by 
Florida from Spain in 1819 with 59,270; Texas 
in 1845 with 247,000; by occupying Oregon in 
1803-6 with 280,425 ; by California, Arizona, New 
Mexico and part of Colorado and Utah in 1848- 
1852 with 677,260; and by Alaska from Russia 
in 1867 with 577,390 to its present magnitude of 
3,603,844 square miles. 

Our exports were one half those of Britain and 
Ireland ; ^93,020,573 against ^182,500,000 ; to have 
been in the same proportion to population, theirs 
should have been $300,000,000. America's were 
per head one and one half greater than theirs. But 
we imported twenty per cent, or $18,342,938 more 
than we exported, and our coin went abroad in 
payment of difference, to the great damage of 
home business. 

In 1803 Britain had nine months of peace, and 
their exports shot up to $200,000,000; but with 
war in 1803 they dropped below $150,000,000, 
and our ships carried part of that. 

Our cotton crop was ^£48,000,000 against 
2,000,000 in 1 79 1. 

New England had six colleges, the other ten 
States had sixteen. 

During war much commerce of Europe was 
done on American ships because, being neutral, 
they were less liable to capture. By the war 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 93 

British ships were shut out of much of Europe. 
America had little to sell except raw material, be- 
cause we had little tariff protection to produce 
factories. Our ships carried for English mer- 
chants to the continent, where English ships 
would have been seized. 

LIX. 

MANUFACTURES were England's strong- 
est support that sustained her through 
the terrible years of that long war, that kept her 
from bankruptcy. America, with half 
the population of Britain, produced Manufac- 

turcs* 

little, and was flooded withEnglish 
goods which drained it of specie. 

Denmark's tonnage in West India trade was but 
about 9000. France had lost much of its shipping, 
and with Spain and Holland was almost limited to 
coast trade. In 1800 Bonaparte professed the 
doctrine that the flag protects the ship, but he 
violated it whenever he could with advantage, for 
America had but the barest shadow of navy to pro- 
tect our ships. England, with a great navy, was 
the most powerful nation on the seas. 

England and Russia agreed to restrain " emi- 
grants " (Bourbons and Poles) ; to division of 
plunder in Germany ; to keep Austria and Prussia 
in balance ; to help Bavaria and Wurtemberg to 
German spoils ; and to be friendly to the *' king 
of Sardinia." 



194 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 



LX. 



BONAPARTE wished to secure to himself 
the monarchy hereditary in his family. 
He meant to extend the boundaries of France 
and to support it by neighboring 
Italy, 1801. monarchies under his control, and so 
amalgamated with his own dynasty 
that they must be vitally interested to support 
him and his house. i 

A so-called Executive Committee of three mem- 
bers assisted by a legislative Consulta, appeared 
at the head of the Cisalpine Republic in Italy. 
All of them were nominated by Bonaparte. They 
all obeyed his orders. He resolved to govern Italy 
in a manner differing from his governing of Paris. 
He invited to Lyons, in France, the most distin- 
guished citizens of the Cisalpine State, the execu- 
tive committee of Milan, judges of several tribu- 
nals, deputies from the bishops, the academies, the 
artists, the army, the government departments, 
national guards and chambers of commerce, one 
from each of the forty cities, and one hundred and 
forty-eight other Italians, named by himself — in 
all four hundred and fifty-two. 

Bonaparte sent Talleyrand to exercise on these 
visitors the arts of hospitality, conversation and 
amiability, and to amuse them with the idea of 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. I95 

an Italian Republic, which had a ready charm for 
Italians. 

They wanted an Italian at their head. Bona- 
parte was a born Italian. Fie meant to receive 
the sovereign power. But the Italians had a fear 
of becoming French subjects. He would use 
trickery to obtain the power. The old army of 
Italy had come from Egypt. To impress the 
Italians he would cause a great display. He 
ordered that army to Lyons. As was arranged, 
this army and the populace hailed him with great 
acclamations on his arrival, January ii, 1802. 
The Italians were charmed with the display, the 
courtesies and the honors shown them. 

It was urged that Italy required the protecting 
care of one whose name and power might throw 
over the infancy of its Republic a splendor that 
should accelerate its manhood. 

Bonacossi, one of the Italian delegates, says 
that on the 26th Bonaparte reviewed the army of 
Egypt. People went out of town to see the spec- 
tacle. In the absence of many members, Talley- 
rand hastily caused a meeting, as had been previ- 
ously arranged with Melzi's party, to take the 
important vote that Bonaparte should be Presi- 
dent of the new republic for ten years, and should 
then be eligible to re-election. Instead of collect- 
ing the votes, he caused one side to stand up, 
while the other remained sitting, thus leaving the 
decision which had a majority for the presiding 



196 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

officer to decide. Great was the astonishment of 
the other members when they heard that in their 
absence Bonaparte had been chosen President. 

For fifteen days Bonaparte had interested and 
flattered the Italians by his amiable appearance, 
by his splendor, by his apparent wisdom. The 
French, on their part, were delighted to feel that 
Italy's national assembly was held in France. 

An Italian was seemingly put in power to repre- 
sent the President. This was Melzi, an old court- 
ier, who could never become dangerous, and had 
manners of dignity, politeness and vivacity. 

LXI. 

THIS *' Italian Republic " was to be practically 
a monarchy ; the Paris-Lyons constitution 
was in part dictated by Bonaparte. No laws were 
admissible except those proposed by 
The Italian him. Thcrc were, a Council of State, 
^^" ^^" a Legislative Body and Ministers. 
Only seven hundred Italians could vote. 
Three hundred land owners, two hundred men of 
learning and science and two hundred traders or 
manufacturers, chosen by the citizens, were to 
nominate the Council of State and elect the 
Legislative Body of seventy-five members, one 
third to be renewed every two years. They must 
assemble for two months each year. The laws 
must be uniform for all parts of the state. The 
Catholic religion was established, but all creeds 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. IQ/ 

were tolerated. The Italian Republic was required 
to raise, pay and feed troops for the new President, 
and permit a French army in their country and its 
fortresses. But they were freed from the odious 
Austrian system ; they could throw off the fetters 
of the Middle Ages ; they could speak openly to- 
gether ; they had the appearance of liberty of 
speech and of the press. In the army they might 
hope to gain distinction, never possible to them 
under Austria. Caprice did not usurp the place 
of law as formerly, and although Bonaparte's policy 
was annoying and oppressive, it did not carry off 
Italians to immure them in distant prisons. The 
ministers were responsible, but Bonaparte was 
their master. 

The Ligurian Republic (Genoa) was reorganized, 
to prepare for union with France, which came 
three years later. In June, 1802, the Ligurian 
Senate gave Bonaparte the privilege of appointing 
its Doge. Liberty and equality of civil rights 
were the basis of its constitution, which lasted 
only till 1802. 

Democracy in Italy was ended. The middle 
and upper classes had a limited franchise and jury 
trials in criminal cases ; tenure of judges during 
life or good behavior were provided. 

The government named the bishops who ap- 
pointed the priests subject to its approval. 



198 THE WORLD^S GREATEST CONFLICT. 



LXII. 

THE old debt of France had been disowned. 
The new debt had reached 1,375,000,000 
francs ($270,000,000). The French revenue, in- 
cluding the Rhine provinces, Belgium, 
The hand of Gcncva and Piedmont, was about 
the Consul. ^00,000,000 fraucs (nearly $180,000,- 
000), of which the foreign possessions 
gave about two ninths (about $40,000,000). 

Bonaparte's police surveillance was despotic. 
There were plenty of sycophants. His acts were 
praised in extravagant terms ; pompous boasting 
was common. But when the word ''subjects" 
was used by him in the Russian treaty, it created 
a storm of anger. So did his proposal to estab- 
lish a Legion of Honor, the law for which was 
passed by a small majority (March 2, 1802). 

He anticipated by several months the legal re- 
tirement of one fifth of the Tribunate, thus render- 
ing that body more submissive, that the Concor- 
dat, opposed by many, might be ratified. 

Public and private morals had suddenly retro- 
graded. The Dark Ages, when it was assumed that 
the sovereign owned the state as his own private 
property, seemed to have returned. Distinguished 
republicans such as Bernadotte, Lannes, Jourdan 
and Augereau, had no other choice but to serve 
Bonaparte or retire into exile. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. I99 

Bonaparte fell rapidly into the customs and 
usages of royalty. The court dresses and the 
absurd courtly usages of the eighteenth century 
were adopted by many. Consuls Lebrun and 
Cambaceres made themselves ridiculous by these 
absurdities. The latter, once a violent Jacobin, 
now covered with orders and ribbons, strutted 
like a peacock up and down the Palais Royal. 
Public repugnance against this folly was vehement. 

Without an equal as a soldier, Consul Bona- 
parte governed wisely, strongly. His hand was 
heavy, but firm and guiding. France saw prosper- 
ity returning, and, wearied with instability and 
cruelty, submitted. His measures were not all 
popular ; Paris and the army did not like his res- 
toration of the church, but the devout peasants re- 
joiced in it. He promoted higher learning, but 
not the education of the people ; he improved and 
equalized the modes of taxation ; he made roads 
and canals ; erected many buildings ; permitted 
banished persons to return and restored their un- 
sold property. French law varied in different 
localities — sometimes damagingly so; he aided 
the adoption of a uniform code. Everywhere he 
acted with the spirit that inspired energy. He 
suppressed the freedom of the press ; he organized 
Fouche's police ; he supplemented it with three 
other separate systems of spies and police ; he 
established special tribunals, arbitrary and sum- 
mary, appointed by himself. 



200 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 



In 1800 he appointed able jurists to form a code 
common to all France. 

No one ventured to speak the truth ; scientific 
works, newspapers, histories, all speeches, ad- 
dresses, reports of the men he employed, were 
composed in the style of the degenerate pagan 
Romans of Caesar's time. Over the world swept 
a Roman craze. P'or years after, art was debased. 
Even Protestant St. Paul's Cathedral, London, and 
the Republican Capitol at Washington, are de- 
faced with still later statues of our own modern 
Christian heroes, who appear either as naked as 
savages or scantily unclothed in the bad taste of 
imitating Pagan Rome. 

To conciliate the emigres Bonaparte promised, 
by decree of the Senate, to all not yet arrived, 
who should return before 1803, take the oath of 
fidelity to the Constitution, renounce all places, 
pensions, titles from foreign powers, and quietly 
submit for ten years to the particular superintend- 
ence of the government, to restore their unsold 
property. This amnesty excepted those who had 
acted as officers in an enemy's army, or had ex- 
cited war, civil or foreign, against the Republic ; 
all commanders who had committed treason and 
prelates who had not resigned as required by the 
Concordat. 

His own wife Josephine and her daughter 
Hortense belonged to the old style and its usages. 
He could hardly expect to become really a mon= 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 201 

arch by the aid of republicans and democrats 
alone. There were many shades of opinion ; he 
must have the support of various and conflicting 
elements ; he must conciliate his enemies. 

He was vehemently opposed, and assailed by 
the talkers in the Paris salons to his great vexa- 
tion. He was establishing an order widely dif- 
ferent from that of his former declarations. 



Lxni. 

WHEN Jefferson became President, March 
4, i8oi, the stately formalities of previ- 
ous administrations were abolished. Instead of 
going, escorted by both bodies of Con- 
gress, to the Capitol and making Fashions, 
speeches to them, Jefferson began iSoi. 

the method of sending messages, and 
he refused the British fashion of receiving an 
address in reply. 

* Radical changes were making in dress and man- 
ners ; trousers were taking the place of knee- 
breeches ; wigs and hair powder began to disap- 
pear. In 1795 England laid a tax of a guinea a per- 
son on the use of hair powder ; the law required 
that it be only of starch ; this tax at first produced 
about ;£20,ooo a year. Cocked hats went out with 
hair powder, though some were seen as late as 1837. 

* Chambers's Cyclopedia, Vol. V. p. 731. 



202 THE WORLD*S GREATEST CONFLICT. 



* Coats of the eighteenth century were of silk, 
velvet, satin or broadcloth of fanciful colors. A 
large square-plated buckle was in style in 1791, 
when shoe-strings were coming into use. In 1800 
petitions were sent to the British Parliament, ask- 
ing that the use of shoe-strings be prohibited. 

It was in a wig, with the queue in a silk bag, 
with powdered hair, knee-breeches, silk stockings, 
buckles at the knees and shoes, and wearing a 
dress sword, that Washington was inaugurated 
President at New York, in 1789. 

About 1790 cloth came into general wear, the 
waistcoat of more costly material and embroidered. 

In France the change from 1789 to 1801 was 
greater than in the whole previous century. The 
popular common class dress became a round hat, 
short coat, light waistcoat and trousers ; a hand- 
kerchief tied loosely round the neck, with flowing 
ends, showing the shirt collar above, the hair 
short, without powder, the shoes tied with strings. 
This style became common for young men in Eng- 
land ; close-fitting trousers were common till 18 14. 
Before 1789 the dress of boys had been almost like 
that of men except that they wore trousers earlier. 
In England white neckcloths held their own until 
George the Fourth's example quickly brought in 
the black stock. 

* Chambers's Cyclopaedia, Vol. V. p. 731. 



The world^s greatest conflict. 203 



LXIV. 

CAMP-MEETINGS and religious revivals in 
America had begun a little before 1800. 

The Methodists had increased from 316 in 1781, 
to 72,874 in 1801. In Nova Scotia, 
Newfoundland and the West Indies Religion, 
they numbered 13,667, and in Europe ^soi. 

109,961 ; a total everywhere of 196,502. 

Says Jesse Lee: ''Crowds collected; no house 
could hold them ; ministers preached in the 
woods. Persons were struck down by the power 
of God and lay helpless ; after awhile people, ex- 
pecting to be detained all night, began to prepare 
tents of cloth or bushes and carried provisions 
that they might tarry all night, keeping up the 
meeting through the night where there was a par- 
ticular manifestation of the divine presence." 
Methodists,* Presbyterians and Baptists united to 
hold these meetings. 

He speaks of '* a good work of God " in Balti- 
more, and *' in Annapolis was a very great display 
of the love and power of God, and many souls were 
converted."! In 1802 were added 13,860 mem- 
bers in America ; they had seven conferences. 
In 1 801 they took in Maine as two circuits. $ In 

* Lee's History of Methodists, 1810, p. 280. 
t Ibid p. 279. 
-t Ibid p. .285. 



204 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

1800 the annual allowance of traveling preachers 
was raised from sixty-four dollars to eighty dollars, 
and traveling expenses and all presents made to 
him and the same to his wife.* 

In May, 1801, a rule was adopted, against stren- 
uous opposition by Southern preachers, to ordain 
colored deacons for colored churches, Richard 
Allen v^^as the first colored deacon ever ordained 
by Methodists. 

Under the plan of Union of 1801 hundreds 
of Union Presbyterian and Congregationalist 
churches met, with a pastor of either. 

Sunday schools scarcely existed. In Massachu- 
setts and Connecticut, towns settled ministers and 
paid them by tax. These were nearly all Federal- 
ists ; in newer regions, West and South, most of 
the revival preachers were Republicans. Meeting- 
houses were without fires, even in winter, and ser- 
mons and prayers were frequently too long to ac- 
cord with Matthew vi. 7. 

In 1 801 Germans discoursed well of religion, 
metaphysics and science, illy of politics ; English- 
men acutely of trade, admirably in literature, 
badly in politics ; Frenchmen cautiously in re- 
ligion, with a manifest disposition to take a rest 
in political discussion ; Americans were excited 
in politics, but gaining in religion ; f Russians 
were standing silent; Italians were full of hope, 

* Lee's History of Methodists, 1810, p. 267. 
t Goodrich's U. S. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 205 

political, social and religious ; Austria seemed 
disposed to do its thinking with its bayonets ; 
Prussia watched its chance to seize German terri- 
tory whenever it could do so without much risk ; 
Turkey, Denmark and Sweden looked on to see 
what next ; Portugal tried to trim between Eng- 
land and Bonaparte ; and Spain tried to be on 
both sides of political struggles. 

Strict censorship of the press existed in Ger- 
many and France ; England's right of habeas 
corpus was suspended ; there was no liberty else- 
where in Europe. 

Then it was that America repealed her law, re- 
stricting the liberty of speech and of the press, as 
England's people too would have gladly restored 
the habeas corpus. 

Dalton's Experimental Essays first directed the 
attention of Guy Lussac to chemical physics. 

The German philosopher Hegel published his 
first work. 

The poems of the Scotchman, James Hogg, first 
appeared. 

In Germany the " romantic school " of poets 
were writing their religio-aesthetic poems. 

In Spain De Los Henos, the most popular mod- 
ern poet, and Serafin Calderon, were just born. 
Walter Scott was already well known as a poet. 
Robert Burns (July 21, 1796), Hugh Blair (July 
7, 1797) and William Cowper had lately died. 

In 1798 Canning had made his reputation as 



206 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 

an anti-slavery orator. Galvanism had just been 
heard of in England. 

In 1801 Plazzi discovered the first-known as- 
teroid, January i. 

Lavater, the physiognomist, died of wounds at 
Zurich. 

Martial law continued in Ireland. 

Bonaparte deported one hundred and thirty re- 
publicans, accused but not proven to have taken 
part in the " infernal machine " plot to destroy 
him. This machine exploded in the street, broke 
the glass of his carriage, December 25, 1800. It 
was a Royalist plot. To injure the Jacobins, he 
charged it to them. 

In Germany, Fuerbach, a jurist, found support- 
ers in the idea that the decision of a judge in 
penal cases should always be in strict conformity 
to law without discretion. In 181 3 he planned 
the penal code of Bavaria. 

The Servians revolted against Turkey, elected 
Czerny their prince, and, aided by Russia, main- 
tained their liberty for several years. 

The British Admiral, Nelson, attacked Bona- 
parte's flotilla at Boulogne, in August, without 
success. 

A great event of the year was the signing, 
October i, of the preliminaries of peace after 
eleven years of war. The terms left all as when 
war began except that England held Surinam and 
Trinidad, taken from the Spanish, and the very 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 20/ 

important island of Ceylon, taken from the Dutch, 
with its fine harbor, and Trincomalee, extremely 
important to India. 



LXV. 

BONAPARTE, now the strong head of France, 
addressed a letter, December 26, 1799, to 
George the Third, urging a peace. But George 
and his advisers did not desire peace 
unless they could dictate terms to Bonaparte's 
France and the world. The English Letter of Dec. 
are distinguished for generous terms 26, 1799. 
of peace. Yet George the Third's 
minister. Lord Grenville, insolently replied, Janu- 
ary 4, 1800,* to the French minister that France 
desired the "extermination of all established gov- 
ernments," that '' the most solemn treaties have 
only prepared the way for fresh aggression," his 
Majesty could not "place reliance on the mere re- 
newal of general professions of pacific disposi- 
tions." He required to be convinced "that after 
the experience of so many years of crimes and 
miseries, better principles have ultimately pre- 
vailed in France. The best guarantee for the 
reality and permanence of the pacific intentions of 
the French government would be the restoration 
of that royal dynasty which has maintained for so 

*Whig. 



208 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 

many ages the internal prosperity of France and 
made it regarded with respect and consideration 
abroad. Such an event would clear away all ob- 
stacles which hinder negotiations for peace; it 
would insure to France the tranquil possession of 
her ancient territory, and it would give to all the 
nations of Europe that security which they are 
compelled to seek at present by other means." 

This rude refusal to try to make peace, this 
language, both stupid and malicious, was a formal, 
official notice to France that there could never be 
peace until France, as a conquered country, should 
accept the return of the odious and incapable 
Bourbons, whose long misrule had kept the nation 
for ages distressed, and had thus qualified the 
revolutionists for the extravagant bursts of fero- 
city and disgust with which they had flung from 
them this worthless dynasty. It meant that 
George wished to force upon France his own, not 
her choice of rulers. His statement that the Bour- 
bons maintained "internal prosperity of France" was 
not truth. Intelligent England did not believe it. 

Who can doubt that, had the Bourbons and the 
noblesse exercised common fairness and justice 
towards the industrious French workers, who are 
in France, as in every country, the only pro- 
ducing class, the people would not have been 
o-oaded to revolution, and cruelties would never 
have occurred, for the French would have been a 
contented people. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 2O9 

So George, who had already twice treated with 
the Directory for peace, refused to discuss the 
subject with Bonaparte, and thus left him no 
choice but to continue the war with all its evils. 
Thus great responsibility rests upon George. The 
language of that reply was unlike the courteous 
English ; it was rude, offensive, impolitic. Many 
Englishmen condemned it. Addington said it 
was "too caustic and opprobrious." Wilberforce 
was shocked by it ; Cornwallis spoke of it as " un- 
provoked insolence," and as "haughty and most 
unwise." 

A violent debate in Parliament ensued. Fox 
was roused ; he made a great speech for peace. 
Pitt represented the insecurity of a peace with the 
violator of so many Italian treaties. Fox was in a 
minority of sixty-four. George, hater of Catho- 
lics, prepared to aid the Catholic royalist revolt in 
Vendee. 

Yet England was in distress. 

An importation of grain turned the balance of 
trade against England. The gold and silver de- 
monetized, had been exported to pay foreign sub- 
sidies and to buy food. The scarcity of crops for 
two years (1801-2) raised prices just when the 
banks' arbitrary restrictions of loans decreased the 
facilities for procuring money. 

In the summer of 1802 the amount of the Bank of 
England notes in circulation was ;^i6,747,300. 
Exchange with Hamburg was almost sixteen per 



210 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

cent, discount against England ! In May, 1803, 
the additional disadvantage at Dublin was a dis- 
count of about sixteen per cent, between it and 
London. The London rate expresses the deprecia- 
tion of British currency, it being about equal to the 
premium on silver above Bank of England notes. 



LXVL 

FRENCH law had introduced military con- 
scription, September, 5, 1798. Now it 
helped to fill the army. General Melas, who com- 
manded the Austrian army in Italy, 
The War in began the campaign with brilliant 
Italy. 1800. success. Hc won a victory over the 
French General Massena at Voltri, 
April 10, and so cut the French army in two as 
to separate Suchet's corps, and drive it to a dis- 
tance from Massena, whom Melas soon after 
besieged in Genoa and compelled to surrender 
after great starvation (June 5, 1800). Fifteen 
thousand Genoans perished by famine and disease 
during this terribly cruel siege. 

General Moreau, with a French army, crossed 
the Rhine, April 25, and soon after defeated the 
Austrians under Kray in several battles. 

Bonaparte quietly formed a third army, with 
which he crossed the Alps and reached Italy 
before Melas knew of its existence. Bonaparte 



THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 211 

was beaten at Marengo, but Desaix came with 
re-enforcements and turned the defeat into a com- 
plete victory, which compelled the Austrians to 
evacuate Italy as far as the Mincio, and to sign an 
armistice. Desaix fell, but his charge won from 
Austria all it had gained in 1798-99. The truce 
stopped Moreau, who had taken Munich, and was 
pushing on victoriously towards Vienna. 

Europe wanted peace. Russia, as anxious not 
to establish an Austro-German supremacy as she 
had been in 1798-99 to weaken the growing power 
of France, had withdrawn from the Austro-English 
coalition as soon as they were successful in 1799. 

Austria was held back from making peace only 
by her English subsidy treaty. Thus George com- 
pelled the resumption of war that recovered Italy 
for France. Moreau crushed the Austrian, army 
at Hohenlinden, December 2, 1800. The English 
took Malta. When the bloody bargain between 
George and Austria expired, the war between Aus- 
tria and France ended in the Peace of Luneville, 
February 9, 1801. 

Austria ceded Belgium to France, with all the 
left bank of the Rhine. 

In Italy the line between Austria and the Cis- 
alpine Republic was fixed at the Adige, and the 
cities of Verona and Legnano were divided. The 
Grand Duke of Modena got Brisgau in exchange 
for his duchy, and the Grand Duke of Tuscany 
had Salzburg and other places instead of Tuscany 



212 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 

which Bonaparte sold to foolish Charles the Fourth, 
King of Spain, to be given to the puppet Duke of 
Parma, a creature of Bonaparte's. 



LXVII. 

THE overthrow of the old Helvetic Confed- 
eracy, in 1798, was a crime of the French 
Directory, The new Swiss Constitution, non- 
federative, was, like that of France, 
Switzerland. made by the French party. May 
30, 1798, supported by a French 
army and force. The Orisons evaded it by re- 
ceiving an Austrian army. Not till 1799 did they 
lose independence. Then France took from the 
Swiss, Mulhousen, Geneva and part of Basle, and 
forced upon them an alliance offensive and defen- 
sive (August 19, 1799). 

The Swiss had to renounce their glorious neutral- 
ity, so well maintained for centuries as the safe- 
guard of Swiss liberty. Union and local rights 
parties were now at war. January, 1800, Dolder's 
revolt overthrew the new Directory, and attempted 
anew Swiss Constitution. Opposition, aided by 
France, made counter revolt, August 7, 1800. 
Aristocracy against democracy, and Bonaparte 
stimulating trouble so as to find pretext to inter- 
fere. He wished to appear as dictator as soon as 
peace with England should come. 



THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 213 

Aristocracy would serve his purpose better than 
freedom and union of feeling. It would require 
his aid. A free republic would be self-defensive, 
supported by patriotism. This was not what he 
wanted. He sent an outline of a Constitution. In 
May, 1 801, another revolt used this outline altered 
to the old Canton system. It was laid before the 
Assembly. Many deputies, enraged, withdrew, 
led by Alois Reding. Six Alpine cantons aided 
the seceders (Grisons). 

Their boldness alarmed the Centrals ; they de- 
feated the Centrals' troops ; Zurich favored Swiss 
freedom, so the Centrals bombarded it. It held 
out and Reding's party routed the Centrals' troops, 
took Berne, the capital, and were hailed with 
joy by the people. 

The French separated Valais into what they 
called a republic. Bonaparte hoped, by compli- 
cating affairs, to be called in by both parties and 
keep Austria from charging him with violating his 
Luneville pledge to let the Swiss alone to arrange 
their government. 

Bonaparte insisted that recent changes be 
annulled. England objected to his interference. 

The remainder of the Assembly, left by the 
seceders, held on till October, when the Bonapart- 
ists made a Constitution from their chief's model, 
dissolved the Assembly, chose a senate, and held 
power till it chose a new Council, which in turn 
put Reding, the head of opposition, in full execu- 



^14 THE WORLD^S GREATEST CONFLICT. 



tive power — a strange situation. Bonaparte was 
surprised. To permit this would make the Swiss 
free, and would defeat his designs on that country. 

Reding went to Paris to arrange with him. 
Bonaparte would yield nothing. He compelled 
Reding to take into his council six of his Bona- 
partist opponents. These dissolved the Senate, 
summoned such persons as they chose, who, un- 
authorized by the Swiss, deposed Reding, made 
what they called a constitution, placed a Bonapart- 
ist. Bolder, at the head of affairs. Then the 
French troops marched away. Just as the French 
had foreseen and desired, the Swiss rose in arms 
against this fraudulent government. Bonaparte 
wanted pretext. 

Von Erlack, with militia, took the capital 
(Berne). Reding called an assembly, at Schwyz, 
in form of the old Swiss Diet. Canton after can- 
ton joined. The false government was compelled 
to escape into Pays du Vaud. The old free gov- 
ernment was set up by the armed people. Every- 
where was contention, bloodshed. The situation 
was terrible. 

For this situation Bonaparte had plotted. He 
ordered the Swiss to submit. The Constitution 
should be settled at Paris. He sent Ney with a 
French army. The Diet protested. But opposi- 
tion was useless. Switzerland was suppressed. 
The Swiss were indignant. Patriots were put in 
prison. Reding said to the French officer who 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 21 5 

arrested him : '* I have obeyed the call of con- 
science and my country." 

Bonaparte was scheming to annex the Valais to 
France ; he wanted its passes, St. Bernard and 
Simplon, the gates of Italy. 

He proclaimed himself mediator of Switzerland ; 
he declared that **all the powers will be dissolved. 
The Senate alone, assembled at Berne, will send 
deputies to Paris ; each canton can also send some ; 
and all the former magistrates can come to Paris, 
to make known the means of restoring union and 
tranquillity and conciliating all parties." 

The chiefs of the Swiss aristocracy immediately 
joined the radical deputies at Paris. There could 
be no long discussion, though there was much dis- 
agreement. Bonaparte manifested towards these 
Swiss notables, nearly sixty in number, who had 
gone undelegated to Paris, the exceeding amiabil- 
ity which he was able to infuse into his manners 
and address, the condescension expressed in his 
features and gestures when he wished to please. 
He delighted them by plausibly amiable speeches 
and affable behavior. 

He had decided upon the plan of a Swiss consti- 
tution. He ostensibly authorized four French 
senators to adjust with them a Federal govern- 
ment. 

Bonaparte gave Switzerland a constitution Feb- 
ruary II, 1803. He took to himself the title 
of Protector of the Republic. However, in this 



2l6 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 

instrument he paid a greater regard to the habits 
and wishes of the people than was expected from 
his arrogance. 

He weakened the central power, as the Diet of 
twenty-five deputies was to sit, by rotation, in the 
six principal cantons ; he appointed as President 
a patrician (Affry). The Swiss cantons, free in 
internal government, fell as a state under the 
foreign rule of France, and became a part of 
Bonaparte's strength and power. 

A commission of seven, appointed by Bonaparte 
and assisted by Ney with a French army, intro- 
duced this newest constitution. April 15, 1803, 
Bonaparte appointed the provisional magistrates 
of the '' Republic " and of the Cantons. 

A war tax was levied for the support of the 
French troops to November 20, 1802 (625,000 
francs). Ney required the Swiss to surrender 
their arms, which he carried off to Valais. 

Bonaparte compelled a treaty, offensive and de- 
fensive, with France (1803). Switzerland was 
compelled to furnish and support sixteen thousand 
Swiss for Bonaparte's army, and eight thousand 
more " if necessary." 

Reding was liberated. He sat in the Diet as 
member for Schwyz. 

The French army retired. But Switzerland was 
helpless and under Napoleon's control until 18 14. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. ^I^ 



LXVIII. 

THOUGH Louis the Fourteenth, to the great 
damage of France, persecuted the Protest- 
ants, he vigorously supported French rights and 
his own authority in Church affairs, 
against the Pope. Among their dis- concordat. 
putes was the noted one about reve- isoi. 

nues of vacant benefices and presen- 
tations to benefices by the King. In 1673-75 he 
extended his right to provinces till then exempt. 
The Pope, Innocent the Eleventh, opposed. Louis 
assembled the French clergy in 1682. Besides ex- 
tension of royal claim to Church revenue he caused 
them to make four famous propositions, regarded 
as the basis of the Galilean Church. 

1. The power of the Pope extends only to 
things spiritual, and has no concern with tem- 
poral matters. 

2. The authority of the Pope in spiritual affairs 
is subordinate to a general council. 

3. It is even limited by the canons, the cus- 
toms and constitution of the kingdom and the 
Gallican Church. 

4. In matters of faith the Pope's authority is 
not infallible. 

By 1797 worship was re-established in thirty-five 
thousand parishes ; about one to each eight hun- 



2l8 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLtCt. 

dred French people. The people paid their own 
priests. These were divided not very unequally 
between priests who had taken the French oath of 
allegiance, and those who refused to take it. Thus 
was division. Each party with its clergy claimed 
to be the Church itself. 

The Pope, Pius the Seventh, wanted a stronger 
hold on France in 1801. He wanted Romanism 
acknowledged as dominant there. He wished to 
end division. He wanted the power and influence 
of the French Government for it as the national 
religion. He decided to accept the best terms 
attainable. 

Bonaparte desired the strength of the Church to 
aid his ambition. Not yet Consul for life, he was 
scheming for the empire. Priests might aid to 
prepare the way. He controlled the Pope. Why 
not through him rule the priests ? The French 
liberal branch of the Church was directed by ener- 
getic and independent men. He feared it. It 
might not be docile. He decided against the 
French national idea; he determined to secure 
power over the Church. 

He made the famous Concordat of July 15, 1801, 
with Pius the Seventh. In return for a decree 
protecting the Catholic as the religion " of the 
great majority of the French," and a promise of 
salaries from the Government to the clergy, the 
Pope agreed to consecrate such bishops as the 
French Government should nominate ; to give up 



THE WORLD*S GREATEST CONFLICT. 2ig 



claim to the old church lands, and to order a new- 
prayer for the Consuls, to whom the clergy were 
to take oath of allegiance. The number of bishops 
was reduced to forty-two, with nine archbishops ; 
about half the old number. 

Bonaparte sent the treaty to the Chambers with 
" Organic Articles," to which the Pope had de- 
clined consent. By these, the basis made for 
teaching in seminaries for recruits for the clergy, 
are the famous articles of the French clergy of 
1682 ; priests were forbidden to accuse individu- 
als or other churches supported by the State, or to 
publish anything unconnected with the exercise of 
their religion. As he had secured the nomination 
of bishops and cures, he left the appointment of 
priests to them, expecting them to favor such as 
were not hostile to him. He appropriated to the 
Church for 1803, two million francs, raised in 181 r 
to seventeen million francs. 

During the war with France from 1793 to 1802 
the British navy captured or destroyed seventy- 
four ships of the line and five hundred and nine- 
teen smaller vessels, besides many privateers. 
One hundred and forty-four of the captured ves- 
sels were added to the British navy, thus increas- 
ing it above losses ninety-three vessels. 

Such was the eagerness to steal men that Brit- 
ish war vessels often made an exciting chase and 
capture of British privateers in order to press 
their seamen into the navy. 



220 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 



Severe flogging was common in both army and 
navy. 

The war had continued for nine years. Great 
Britain had gained but one of the objects for which 
George and Pitt had made it in 1793. They had 
begun it to stop the spread of manhood freedom ; 
to curb the ambition of Repubhcan France ; to 
prop the thrones of imbecile kings ; to ruin or im- 
pair the French influence in Europe, especially in 
the low countries. The first point was attained, 
but it was Bonaparte that attained it, a very un- 
English victory in its opposition to liberty, and 
liberty had disappeared from Europe. George 
and Pitt had really powerfully aided to consolidate 
the power of Bonaparte to kill freedom, but had 
lost the price of blood, for the power of France 
was immensely extended, its frontier carried to 
the Rhine, the Netherlands still more firmly held. 
England's rivals, Russia, Prussia and Austria, too 
were increased. 

When a man who is prominent in a civilization 
or in an age, brings on unnecessary war or other 
crime, that man is a blot on that age ; a stain on 
its religion, its enlightenment, its humanity, its 
patriotism, its philanthropy, its learning, its com- 
mon sense, its manhood. 

France ruled Holland, Switzerland and Pied- 
mont, and had revived union with Spain ; had 
again adopted religion ; had changed from unre- 
publican republic to strong monarchy ; she had 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 221 

extended her powers, so had the other great pow- 
ers. Recently Russia, Prussia and Austria had 
divided Poland ; Austria had acquired Venice ; 
Great Britain was building an empire in India; 
she had obtained Ceylon; she was more than 
ever mistress of the seas. 

The old "balance of power" had given place to 
a new " balance of power." The French mastery 
of Holland ruined the Dutch navy and thus re- 
moved a great naval and commercial rival of Eng- 
land. The British and Americans monopolized 
the ocean-carrying trade. 

In Ceylon Great Britain supplied her great want 
in the East, a good harbor. In all India, Bombay 
alone afforded a safe shelter to ships during mon- 
soons. Everywhere else vessels were obliged to 
stand out into open seas on the approach of those 
terrible storms. In 1801 Great Britain already 
possessed in India a greater subject population 
than any European power had in Europe. The 
glittering fragments of Portuguese empire scat- 
tered up and down the East had warned England 
of the great importance of acquiring Ceylon, whose 
harbor, Trincomalee, is secure at all times. Eng- 
land sent troops in 1795 to conquer Ceylon from the 
Dutch. This was done almost without opposition. 

The British war fleet had reached almost eight 
hundred vessels, manned by one hundred and 
twenty thousand men withheld from productive 
labor. 



222 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

Great Britain had spent large sums and in- 
creased its debt to ;£"484, 000,000, equal to about 
^2,400,000,000. 

Bonaparte presented his scheme for public in- 
struction. It left primary schools to private 
support. It provided, for higher education, the 
lycees and special studies, to which he took the 
power to appoint sixty-four hundred scholarships.* 
Girls were omitted. This power of appointment 
was a power of bribery. In all France but 
seventy-five thousand pupils under ten years were 
in the schools, f 



LXIX. 

BONAPARTE'S government proposed and 
urged a Bill to allow him to usurp judicial 
functions by appointing special tribunals composed 
of three judges of the criminal court, 
Arbitrary thrcc officcrs and two asscssors 
Courts. chosen by himself, to try infamous 

crimes, arson, coining, robbery, 
threats against purchasers of national property, 
bribery, tampering with soldiers and seditious 
assemblies. 

What would remain for juries t Only petty 
offenses t 

These arbitrary courts were to continue for two 

* Bourrienne, t Fourcroy. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 223 

years after peace, during which time — still more 
absolute — the government might exile any per- 
sons who may appear dangerous. 

The exile clause was so strongly opposed in the 
Tribunate that he withdrew it ; then the Bill, 
vigorously opposed by patriotic men, passed the 
Tribunate by a vote of forty-nine to forty-one. 



LXX. 

CHARLES THE SEVENTH and Louis the 
Fourteenth attempted codes. A commis- 
sion of able lawyers, Tronchet, Portalis, Merlin, 
Treilhard and others, appointed in 
July, 1800, placed in simple order the The Famous 
French laws, using Dormat's and code. 

Pothier's writings, constituent de- 
crees, the convention's drafts of 1793 and 1795, 
and one by Cambaceres for the Council of Five 
Hundred ; they eliminated the obsolete and those 
incompatible with the Revolution ; they formed 
one code which was then sent to all the high law 
courts for examination and enrichment, and after 
all this finally discussed in the Council of State, 
where only Bonaparte took part in the work when 
so nearly completed. At his instance changes were 
made, not always for the better. He reluctantly 
submitted it to the Tribunate. Neither the Tribu- 
nate nor the Legislative Body had power to amend 



224 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

any bill ; they could merely adopt or reject ; they 
could not change a single word in the code pro- 
posed for their country ! 

The preliminary title, a sort of declaration of 
principles, was found defective, and the Tribunate 
and Legislative Body rejected it, the latter by only 
three majority. Bonaparte was enraged. Had he 
presented it anew, properly corrected, it would 
have been adopted. 

Another title relative to civil rights contained 
the Dark Ages cruelties, confiscation, dishonor of 
children in cases of civil death. The Tribunate 
voted it down for its cruelty. Some members 
censured provisions hostile to liberty and favorable 
to favoritism. 

Bonaparte was very angry; he raved with invec- 
tive. He withdrew all the code bills until he could 
force their adoption. 

The opposition could not be bought; * he pre- 
pared to break it. Cambaceres showed him how 
to do it. 

The Constitution provided that the Tribunate 
and the Legislative Body should be renewed one 
fifth every year. The time was come. No new 
method was provided. " Let the Senate choose 
who shall be the retiring members," said Camba- 
ceres. It was done. Constant, Daunon, Chenier, 
every friend of liberty was thus expelled. 

The abject Senate then filled the vacancies 

* Thibaudeau. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 225 

mostly with creatures of Bonaparte, of whom fif- 
teen were generals and twenty-five officials. Car- 
not was the only republican. 

The first Code Title was finally promulgated 
March 5, 1803, another March 30, 1804, the Pro- 
cedure Civile in 1806, the Code de Commerce in 
1807, of rinstruction Criminelle in 1808, and the 
Code Penal in 18 10.* In this great code Napoleon 
adopted, as his own, the work of the great French 
lawyers, and gave it his name. It is not his code, 
but it is theirs. 



LXXI. 

WHEN Pitt had left the British ministry, 
and after much difficulty and very 
pointed discussions, protracted through several 
months, preliminaries of peace be- 
tween Great Britain and France were Peace of 
at last signed at London, October Amiens. 

I, 1 80 1. March 27, 1802. 

Afterwards some unexpected diffi- 
culties arose with regard to Malta, as Great Brit- 
ain repented having agreed to give it up. Means 
were found to remove this obstacle, and the peace 
of Amiens was finally signed March 27, 1802. 

England was generous. The colonies of France, 
Holland and Spain, captured by Great Britain, were 

* Chambers's Cyclopaedia Vol. IV. p. 209. 



226 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 

to be restored, except Dutch Ceylon, and Spain's 
Trinidad, which England gained. 

The French were to evacuate Rome, Naples and 
Elba. Egypt was restored to Turkey. England 
gained an open port at Good Hope. The integrity 
of Portugal was guaranteed, France retained all 
that it had acquired in Europe. Great Britain 
recognized Bonaparte's government and acknowl- 
edged the Ionian Islands as a free republic. 

Great Britain engaged to restore Malta to its old 
masters, the Knights of St. John, within three 
months. Malta was placed under the guaranty of 
France, Great Britain, Austria, Spain, Russia and 
Prussia. Later Russia and Prussia declined to 
undertake the guaranty unless modifications were 
added. 

Contrary to practice, the former treaties between 
Great Britain and France were not renewed. 
When the peace of Utrecht was made England 
had an interest in having the principle of free com- 
merce for neutral states held sacred, and she an- 
nounced it in that treaty of commerce and 
navigation of 171 3 ; treaties since then had regu- 
larly renewed it. Now George's government 
wished to suppress that principle, as it had great- 
est power at sea. 

George the Third was displeased with the 
treaty. He who never risked his own person, nor 
his comforts and luxurious repose, in campaigns 
and battles, who never felt wounds or army sick- 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 22/ 

ness, exhibited his inhumanity by wishing that 
war, with its nameless horrors, should continue. 

Ardently, the English people welcomed peace by 
outbursts of joy. London resounded with glad- 
ness ; the citizens illuminated the city ; they drew 
the French envoy's carriage in triumph ; they 
shouted everywhere friendly expressions toward 
the French. Throughout England were lively 
rejoicings ; the people gave thanks that the war 
was ended. Thus did the real English rebuke 
George and Pitt. 

The English are good soldiers, but they do not 
desire war ; they do not delight in making victims 
and in desolating homes and countries. They are 
not fond of cruelty ; they like peace, industry and 
trade, though in war they fight stubbornly. 

Extreme delight was also shown in Paris. 
Everybody rejoiced at peace. Paris was soon 
crowded with strangers, especially the British. 
The French and British met with cheerful cordi- 
ality. Could the feelings of the people of the two 
nations have ruled their governments, then the 
peace might have been lasting. 



228 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 



LXXII. 

HAD Bonaparte been content with the first 
place among modern rulers, with a mil- 
itary reputation surpassing that of all modern 

men, and had he devoted himself to 
Bonaparte's the real good of France and of man- 
Opportunity. kind ; had but a wise ministry and 

parliament ruled England ; had but a 
king fair-minded and really Christian, one who ex- 
ercised beneficent influence, but left British poli- 
tics to able men, freely chosen by the British — 
the prosperity and peace of the two great peoples 
had been assured, and the rest of Europe would 
have gravitated toward well-regulated freedom. 
Upon these two men, Bonaparte and George, 
depended peace and prosperity or bloodshed and 
misery of Europe. Both chose the latter, and a 
curse fell upon men. 

The policy of France should have been peace. 
By methods of peace and by turning the wonderful 
energies of the French empire into the building 
up of a great commerce and an armed navy in 
France, Holland and Italy, with all the vast re- 
sources of 40,000,000 of population, when Great 
Britain and Ireland had but 16,319,000, and the 
United States but about 5,500,000, Bonaparte 
might have added vastly to the wealth of his 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 229 



empire, created and developed an immense pro- 
duction, trade and commerce, and made a new 
empire of fertile Louisiana. He had it in his power 
to wonderfully increase the world's prosperity. 
He hated England with a mortal hatred, and had 
he thrown his whole force into enlarging the ac- 
tivity and extent of French manufactures and 
navigation it is possible that he might have made 
England feel the tremendous power of an enor- 
mous competition in her own favorite field of 
enterprise. 

Holland is naturally a great commercial nation. 
Such she had been for ages. When standing- 
alone in former generations, she was a great naval 
and commercial rival of England. 

In France, too, presenting three fronts to the 
best commercial seas of the world, and the fourth 
front resting on the navigable Rhine, in the neigh- 
borhood of industrious peoples, Bonaparte pos- 
sessed rare facilities for building up a very rich 
commerce. Certainly it was the part of good 
statesmanship to seek, through the arts and indus- 
tries, the power on the ocean that he so ardently 
coveted. On land was his power; at sea Great 
Britain ruled ; his way to success there lay, not in 
destroying England's navy, but in obtaining for 
France still more powerful fleets of trading in- 
dustry. Could he, in 1801, have driven every 
British vessel from the ocean, he had nothing ade- 
quate to take their place. Of what value could be 



230 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

ocean rule without commerce ? His success there 
would simply have destroyed two thirds of the 
trade of the world. To build up French, Dutch, 
Belgian, Italian and Spanish industries and com- 
merce was the right way to rival or outrival Eng- 
land ; this would have been statesmanship. 

News of the surrender of Alexandria, by which 
the French lost Egypt, reached Paris October 7. 
Bonaparte hastened to make a treaty before the 
Turkish embassador should hear the news. He 
offered to give up Egypt. He claimed great mod- 
eration in this offer, although he knew that Egypt 
was already yielded. The deceived embassador 
agreed that French commerce should have, in the 
Levant, all the advantages accorded to the most 
favored nations, and he recognized the republic of 
the seven Ionian Islands. Thus France, that had 
tried to despoil Turkey of Egypt, gained all that 
had been accorded to England that had defended 
Egypt for Turkey at enormous expense of money 
then needed to buy bread for England's starving 
poor of 1800-2. France was needy of this com- 
merce, but her vessels had mostly disappeared ; 
swept from the seas by England. 

Note. During the nine years of the Pitt-George War from 1793 to 1802, Pitt 
and George expended for army 101,393,000 pounds sterling; for navy, 97,244,000 
pounds, and for ordnance 14,183,700 pounds; a total of 212,820,700 pounds 
sterling, or more than a thousand millions of dollars, representing a much larger 
value than the same amount now. For this vast expenditure Pitt and George had 
won when war ended, Trinidad and Surinam, which they could no doubt have 
bought of Spain for less than one million, and Ceylon which they had seized 
from England's former, later and natural ally, Holland. Such facts seem to 



THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 23 1 



urge the idea that George and Pitt were not statesmen, but only incapables. 
They viewed the fact, lamentable to all the world, and really disastrous to Eng- 
land's trade, that French imports, once four fifths as large as those of Great 
Britain, were now almost annihilated. They believed that they were winning the 
profits of the world's carrying trade. Yet in 1801, a year of war, but 1,762 British 
vessels of 418,631 tons and 23,096 men entered the port of London, against 2,459 
British ships of 574,700 tons and 33,743 men in 1802, a year that had nine months 
of peace. In 1801 there entered 3,385 foreign ships of 452,667 tons and 20,388 
men against only 1,549 foreign ships of 217,117 tons and 10,555 men in 1802, an 
advantage of 697 British ships, 156,069 tons and 10,647 men in favor of peace, 
while the foreign were reduced by 1,836 ships of 235,550 tons and 9,833 men. 
Peace had reduced the London carrying by foreign ships by one half ; certainly a 
very suggestive fact. The increase of 10,647 British sailors in 1802 were drawn 
from unproductive war to wealth-producing labor. The war, destroying confi- 
dence, trade and industry in many countries, vastly damaged England. The Pitt- 
George idea that war increased England's ocean trade was really but another of 
their many blunders. Peace is Britain's wealth. 



LXXIII. 

WAR having ceased, Bonaparte continued 
his vast designs, immense indeed, and 
intended to make France a world-swaying power 
to be ruled by himself. France 
needed repose. He needed the full- 1802. 

est confidence of France. He acted 
with energy. Roads, canals, harbors, dykes and 
bridges were made. 

In place of liberty, Bonaparte organized vigor, 
efficiency, tremendous power in France. Every 
branch of government felt his hand — finance, 
labor, skill, art, everything but common education. 
But commerce felt it disastrously. 

The powers of Consul Bonaparte were almost 
absolute. He proposed the laws, appointed or 



232 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

dismissed ministers and embassadors, high coun- 
cilors, military and naval officers, and all judges 
except of the Court of Cassation. 

Bonaparte again attacked the principle of equal 
rights by proposing the " Legion of Honor," with 
pensions and privileges attached. It met great 
and strong opposition. He persisted. Public 
opinion was against it. His will carried the act 
by a small majority, in March, 1802. The throne 
was coming. 

In May, 1802, the Tribunate, already purged of 
its republican members, proposed that a testimo- 
nial of the nation's gratitude be given to Bona- 
parte. The Senate voted a prolongation of his 
consulate for ten years. This did not satisfy him. 

The proposal that his consulate continue for life 
was then submitted to a plebiscite. It was dan- 
gerous to vote " no." For three weeks the polls 
were open in all the cities and villages. August 
2, 1802, the Senate announced 3,577,379 *' ex- 
pressed or tacit " yeas, and but 8,494 noes. * 

In receiving from the Senate the report of the 
votes, Bonaparte said, *' The life of a citizen is for 
his country. The French people wish mine en- 
tirely consecrated to it ; I obey its will. In giving 
me a new pledge, a permanent pledge of its con- 
fidence, they impose on me the duty of firmly es- 
tablishing the system of their laws upon provident 
institutions." 

* Koch, Vol. n. p. 201 ; Rosteck, Vol. I. p. 156, 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 233 

He had made the Concordat of July 15, 1801, 
against the will of the army, to enlist the Church 
and the priests for him ; he had recalled the emi^ 
grant royalists and restored to them the unsold 
part of their property to win their support ; he had 
placed the Senate above the Constitution in order 
to violate it at his will ; he had brought the Italian 
notables to Lyons and accepted from them kingly 
power in the Republic of Italy, that France might 
see his glory reflected from Italy ; he had driven 
from the Tribunate the friends of liberty, that he 
might be practically absolute ; he had secured the 
appointment of sixty-four hundred scholarships 
that he might use them to make friends, and 
strengthen his power by gift of them ; he had al- 
ready the entire appointment of officers of the army, 
the navy and of the civil service except the justices 
of the peace, and these he had shorn of powers. 
He caused the passage of a bill quietly, which 
re-established slavery, which had been abolished by 
the repubhc. The same law restored the Slave 
Trade.* It placed the colonies under his absolute 
control in the words, ''the colonies will be sub- 
jected for ten years to regulations made by the 
Government," a sad fate for St. Domingo if the 
blacks and yellow fever had not delivered it. Yet 
he was not satisfied. 

Two days after the vote was announced the 
meaning of his speech was made apparent. 

* Act relative to the Colonies, 1802. 



234 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 



LXXIV. 

AUGUST 4, 1802, a senattls considttmi ap- 
peared. On the bare proposal of Bona- 
parte's Council of State, without action by the 
Legislative Body, without the forms 
An Astound- required for the least important law, 
ing usurpa- with Only arrogated power, it changed 
tion. August the fundamental law ; it gave to 
4, i8o2. France a new Constitution ! 

It reduced the Council of Five 
Hundred to two hundred and fifty-eight, and divi- 
ded it into sections that should be renewed each 
year in succession. 

It reduced the Tribunate from one hundred to 
fifty, the Senate to eighty. It gave the First 
Consul power to add forty senators at his pleasure. 
This Senate, the servile creature of Bonaparte, 
could change or suspend the Constitution, dissolve 
the Corps Legislatif or the Tribunate, declare de- 
partments '' out of the Constitution," reverse the 
decision of law tribunals, suspend the functions of 
the jury! But all acts of the Senate were first to 
emanate from the First Consul ! He had a new 
Privy Council to prepare senatils consiilta and ad- 
vise about treaties. 

A grand judge was to control and inspect infe- 
rior tribunals, and, if any judgment should appear 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 235 

politically improper, inexpedient or hazardous, the 
subservient Senate might annul it. 

This Senate, a mere instrument of Bonaparte's, 
was to appoint the members of the Legislative 
Body from lists to be arranged by department 
colleges of but three hundred voters each, that 
were to present three names for each deputy. 

The Senate were also to choose the Tribunate, 
now become of little consequence, from candidates 
to be nominated by circuit colleges of only two 
hundred voters each. 

The three hundred department and two hundred 
circuit voters were to be named for life by canton 
assemblies. 

To convoke and prorogue all these bodies was 
left to the Consul. 

Bonaparte took to himself the power to appoint 
his own successor. In concert with a Privy Coun- 
cil of his own choice, he took the power of mak- 
ing war and peace, alliances and of pardon. 

To this arbitrary and fraudulent Constitution the 
nation submitted without a struggle ! Despotic 
monarchy had come without its name. 



236 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 



LXXV. 

BY secret treaty France and Russia, October 
II, 1 80 1, agreed to act with perfect accord 
respecting "compensation" to German princes 
whose territories west of the Rhine 
German had bccn absorbcd by France. This 
"Compensa- invitation to aid in arbitrating Ger- 
tions." 1802. many was a flattery that Bonaparte 
offered to the young czar Alexander, 
to incline him to favor the French policy. 

The King of Prussia was in a spirit of inordi- 
nate cupidity ; Austria impatient, ready to fight 
for German spoils ; the smaller rulers were terribly 
alarmed ; mediation was essential ; they had a 
mediator who had no scruples of conscience. 
Bonaparte engaged to evacuate Naples as soon as 
his army should return from Egypt ; the two 
powers agreed to consult in friendly manner con- 
cerning the interests of the " King of Sardinia," 
and have all regard to the actual state of things ; 
Wurtemberg, Bavaria and Baden were to be 
favored ; * independence of the Ionian republic was 
acknowledged and foreign troops excluded ; France 
and Russia agreed to use their influence to restore 
universal peace, to preserve the balance of power, 

* This suited Napoleon's purposes, because the rulers of Baden and Wurtem- 
berg were his allies, and pleased Alexander because they were his relatives. 



THE world's greatest COxNFLICT. 23/ 

and secure freedom of the seas. Russia engaged 
to recognize all of Bonaparte's condition of Italy 
as settled by existing treaties.* 

German sovereigns, small and great, were each 
alarmed at the activity, the avarice, the influential 
relations of the others. Intrigue was vigorous; 
they beseeched Bonaparte with energy ; many of 
them rushed to Paris to implore him, only to find 
the counter claimant already there in the attitude of 
supplication. They thronged the Tuileries. They 
begged ; they promised ; they exhibited great 
vigor of cupidity. Bonaparte pretended to refer 
the matter to the Diet at Ratisbon. 

Not Germany but Bonaparte arranged the 
changes of Germany. Right and wrong were 
principles not entertained. It was simply interest, 
might, power, birth or circumstance. Bonaparte 
had his own way, and arranged everything to his 
own interest and the profit and enrichment of his 
own friends among German rulers. 

Rulers were wrongly held to be the actual 
owners of their people. All was done on that 
principle. Not the happiness, well being and in- 
terests of the millions of Germans was considered, 
but merely the greed of the few royal or princely 
persons. 

The rights of men, for which France had strug- 
gled and suffered and sacrificed, were all ignored. 
It was merely a strife of men who cared little for 

*Schlosser, Vol. VII. p. 314. 



238 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

the happiness of peoples ; they merely sought gain 
for themselves. The spoils of Germany were 
countries, cities, human beings. Sir Walter Scott 
says, "Towns, districts and provinces were dealt 
from hand to hand like cards at a gaming table," 
and Europe " saw with scandal the government of 
freemen transferred from hand to hand without 
regard to their wishes, aptitudes and habits any 
more than those of cattle," while "breaking every 
tie of affection between governor and governed." 

Still agents of the German rulers and misrulers 
swarmed around Bonaparte and his minister, Talley- 
rand, begging for land and peoples, contracting, 
higgling, not for the good of fatherland, but only 
for themselves ; for increase of their paltry gran- 
deur, for accession to their pretensive egoism, thus 
showing their unfitness to govern by their readi- 
ness to sacrifice public interests, and by their 
ignoring human rights. 

In weighing claims Bonaparte considered only 
princes and families that had long wrung their 
revenues from the labor of other persons ; and 
their conduct plainly showed that they were not 
"divinely" sent to wisely rule, but only that they 
were here to each get the largest possible spoils 
from the labors of those who produce wealth. 
And this was called " Indemnity." 

As no man has any natural right to rule, 
so no one has any right to "indemnity" for loss 
of rule. There is no individual, property right in 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 239 

rule. It is only an employment lent by the people 
who have a right at any time to resume it without 
giving "indemnity." 

Yet here was the case of the Austrian ex-grand 
duke of Tuscany, come from Italy, to be " indem- 
nified " for not being longer wanted in Italy, by 
now being placed over Germans. 

All was decided at Paris. By treaty in June, 
1802, Bonaparte agreed with the Russian embassa- 
dor, and the Czar Alexander ratified it in July. 
Then France and Russia notified the German Diet 
at Ratisbon what was to be done, and the Diet 
ratified it March 24, 1803. 

Long-standing rights were overturned. Forty- 
five towns had long been free. But six of them 
were spared. All else were put under princely 
beggars. Frankfort, Augsburg, Lubec, Bremen, 
Hamburg and Nuremberg only remained inde- 
pendent. 

Prussia, Bavaria, Wurtemberg and Baden, whose 
rulers were friendly to Bonaparte and Alexander, 
were enlarged by the great robbery. The ex- 
grand dukes of Modena and Tuscany received 
shares of the spoils of unfortunate Germany. 
The Dutch prince of Orange, a foreigner expelled 
by his own people, got Fulda and Dortmund. 

It was a dividing of prey. Everything was 
taken by these robbers of the people. They im- 
piously laid unholy hands on the sacred funds of 
suffering humanity; they stole the charitable funds. 



240 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

They declared "that the property of all founda- 
tions," whether Catholic or Protestant, should be 
used, not for the charities to which they had been 
given, but for themselves. 

The clerical princes were all dispossessed except 
Carl Von Dalberg of Regenstein, a great admirer 
of Bonaparte. 

Such was Bonaparte's great wrong to Germany. 



LXXVI. 

ST. DOMINGO, including Tortuga, Goniave 
and other small islands, is about seven 
eighths the size of Ireland, or about twenty-eight 
thousand square miles. With a soil 
St. Domingo. wcll Watered, a climate tempered by 
sea breezes, it is one of the most fer- 
tile spots of the West Indies. Its excellent har- 
bors offer fine facilities for trade. Its coffee, 
cotton, sugar, tobacco, wax, ginger, logwood, 
mahogany and tropical fruits form a valuable 
commerce. 

Long before 1800 the remorseless cruelty of 
Europeans had exterminated the aborigines. In 
the seventeenth century buccaneers swept its seas 
and sheltered in its harbors. 

In 1697, by the peace of Ryswick, Spain ceded 
the west part to France. During the long period 
of a century great numbers of slaves were imported 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 24I 

from Africa. In 1790 the French part was well 
cultivated by about five hundred thousand slaves. 

The mulattoes rapidly increased in the Spanish 
part. There was hostility between them and the 
negroes. The mulattoes, excluded from citizen- 
ship, and generally exempt from slavery, were an 
intermediate caste. They unsuccessfully revolted, 
in 1790, against the Spanish whites. 

In 1 791 (August) the western negroes rebelled 
against their French masters. They committed 
massacres. The French Convention, in 1791, de- 
creed rights of French citizens to colored people. 
But still the struggle went on. Insurrection and 
anarchy reigned. 

In 1794 the French National Assembly declared 
the slaves free, but refused to negroes and mulat- 
toes equal rights with whites. But a French com- 
missioner offered these privileges to all who would 
serve in the French army. This decree won to 
the French republic, Toussaint (surnamed L'Ou- 
verture), a negro, formerly a coachman, who had 
been conspicuously active in favor of royalty and 
Catholicism. The French commander, Laveaux, 
made the talented negro a general. Toussaint 
with his negro army brought most of the western 
part again under France. Since 1791 the whites 
had been almost exterminated. It had been a tri- 
angular antagonism between white, black and 
mixed, and the whites had lost. 

In 1795, by the peace of Basle, Spain had ceded 



242 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

to France the eastern, of that time, Spanish part, 
inhabited before the insurrection by whites and 
mulattoes. Like other Spanish colonies under 
the bad government of Spanish Bourbons, it had 
been much neglected. French commissioners, 
sent to take possession, were refused obedience 
by the whites. 

In 1796 Toussaint received from Paris the rank 
of general, and was made Commander in St. 
Domingo. He now governed the western, and 
Rigaud the eastern or mulatto part. The British 
still held some western ports and forts. France 
sent General Hedouville to expel them. Tous- 
saint joined him with the negroes and Rigaud 
with the mulattoes. The French took Port au 
Prince from the British. The British chose to 
surrender the other places to Toussaint. He 
gave them favorable terms. The British left the 
country. Hedouville with the French troops left 
the island. Then Rigaud with the mulattoes con- 
tended against L'Ouverture and the negroes. 

By the end of 1799, in only a single district 
(Aux Cayes), Rigaud still resisted. Finding him- 
self unsupported by the French, Rigaud went to 
Paris. 

Consul Bonaparte now confirmed L'Ouverture 
as French governor. He did not intend to allow 
him to possess the Spanish part. He sent com- 
missioners to take possession of that part. But 
L'Ouverture moved there with his negro army and 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 243 

compelled the Spanish to deliver up to him, as 
French commissioner, the fortresses, against the 
protest of the French commissioners. 

From this time L'Ouverture tried to play in St. 
Domingo the same part that Bonaparte was play- 
ing in France. To Bonaparte's great disgust the 
St. Domingo negro imitated every step of the for- 
midable Corsican ; at the same time L'Ouverture 
created a government that bid fair to restore the 
former degree of prosperity to that island. As 
Bonaparte had done, so did L'Ouverture appoint 
a commission to make a constitution. He caused 
it to be presented to himself for acceptance. He 
caused himself to be proclaimed president. He 
took the power to name his successor. 

Bonaparte was very angry, because the negro 
had guessed his own intentions and anticipated 
them. He was enraged too because L'Ouverture 
had proclaimed to his negroes, '* We are free to-day 
because we are strongest ; but the First Consul 
maintains slavery in Martinique and the Isle of 
Bourbon ; we also may become slaves if he should 
be able to become the strongest." 

When order was restored L'Ouverture allowed 
the whites to return ; he let out the plantations of 
the absent, he soothed the jealousies of the mulat- 
toes, he restrained the ruder negroes by strict 
discipline. L'Ouverture notified Bonaparte of his 
new dignity in a letter beginning, " The First of 
Blacks to the First of Whites." 



244 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 

Bonaparte prepared a great expedition, under 
command of General Leclerc, the husband of his 
sister Pauline, to destroy the new negro govern- 
ment. He intended to re-inslave that people who 
had fought for and won their free independence. 
Bonaparte was unpopular with the French army 
of the Rhine. It must go to St. Domingo. He 
would then be rid of it. 

George the Third's Addington ministry, favor- 
able to slavery, looked on quietly until the great 
magnitude of the expedition alarmed them. It 
might be designed for purpose other than to sub- 
jugate St. Domingo. They made a protest. 

Bonaparte explained that the British, too, '' were 
materially interested in the reduction of Tons- 
saint's power, who would otherwise establish a 
piratical state."* So Bonaparte, in a piratical 
spirit, sent an immense national piratical force 
to destroy, not only their property and to rob them 
like ordinary pirates, but also to take from them 
those treasures dearest to men's hearts, their own 
freedom and the safety and liberty of their wives 
and children. 

St. Domingo still recognized the sovereignty of 
France. But it was really become independent ; 
it was really a black Roman Catholic nation — the 
only negro Christian people in the world. They 
wished to live under French protection. 

Some British merchants let out their ships for 

* Bonaparte to Talleyrand. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 245 

hire to help to convey these marauder troops and 
their stores on their miserable, despotic and 
wicked errand, but many British denounced it as 
monstrous crime. 

While Bonaparte was directing Talleyrand to in- 
form the British ministry of his intention " of 
annihilating the government of the blacks " he 
wrote to Toussaint of " the great services you have 
rendered to the French people. If their flag 
floats over St. Domingo it is to you and the brave 
blacks that it is due." And " you have caused 
civil war to cease ; you have put a stop to perse- 
cution by savage men, brought back honor to re- 
ligion and God." " The constitution that you 
have framed, while it contains many good things, 
contains others opposed to the dignity and sover- 
eignty of the French people." 

To General Leclerc-he wrote, March i6, 1802, 
**as soon as you have got rid of Toussaint, Chris- 
tophe, Dessalines and the principal brigands, and 
when the mass of the blacks are disarmed, send to 
the continent all negroes and colored men who 
have taken part in the civil troubles." Such was 
Bonaparte's duplicity. 

The St. Domingans feared return to slavery. 
How well grounded were these fears is seen in 
the facts that in July, 1802, Bonaparte directed 
that Richepanse must restore slavery in Guada- 
loupe, and that he caused an enactment of a 
French law to re-establish slavery in the French 



246 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

colonies, and put St. Domingo under his own 
*' personal government " for ten years. 

The natives, with terrible earnestness not un- 
mixed with cruelty, resisted the great aggression. 
It was a fierce, a terrific struggle, with alternating 
success ; on the side of the natives it was for 
home, fireside, country, liberty, honor, and all that 
is valuable and attractive in life ; on the Bonaparte 
side it was for such conquest as disgraces human 
nature. 

Leclerc soon found that he had met a desperate 
enemy. The natives had tasted liberty ; with 
many the struggle was death. Again the country 
was devastated, desolated. 

The sufferings of the French troops were fright- 
ful. Veterans of many battles fell before sickness 
and negro war. 

Cape Frangois was regarded as the principal 
town. It was burned in 1793, but since rebuilt. 
When the French advanced to invest it they found 
it again only ashes. Christophe, a negro chief, 
unable to hold it had burnt the city. 

As the French approached the negroes fulfilled 
their threat to convert the country into a desert. 
Blooming and fertile parts were made desolate 
wastes. 

But by degrees several native generals were 
enticed by fine offers made to them by Leclerc ; 
whole troops of disciplined negroes went over to 
the French. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 24^ 

At last, apprehensive of total desertion, Presi- 
dent Toussaint negotiated ; he offered to resign ; 
he refused all of Leclerc's offers of personal ad- 
vantage. He withdrew to his estate in the forest. 
He only asked to be permitted to live there in 

peace. 

When the French believed their conquest of 
the island complete, they treated the mulattoes 
and negroes according to their former custom, 
with haughtiness. 

Leclerc's force had been greatly reduced by war 
and disease, and he apprehended another popular 
rising against the French. He determined to 
forestall this by decisive action. 

Toussaint had capitulated. May 8, 1802. On 
June 8 the French general invited him to a con- 
ference, treacherously seized him, and sent him to 
France, where this son of the tropics died in the 
cold mountain prison of Joux, in April, 1803. 

Was it a Divine retribution that sent to the 
luxuriant retirement at St. Helena, surrounded by 
the very few men who loved him, this same Bona- 
parte, who uselessly sacrificed many thousands of 
lives, who had caused indescribable wholesale suf- 
fering in a very cruel attempt to make slaves of 
the free St. Domingans, and who himself had 
wickedly and brutally sent the patriot Toussaint 
to suffer and die in a French prison .? 

This treachery produced its legitimate effects. 
Many negroes, enraged, flew to arms. Terrible 



24^ THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 

scenes followed. In a few weeks many thousands 
of French and blacks were destroyed by war and 
fevers. 

The French were deserted, attacked, harassed. 
General Leclerc died. His successor, Rocham- 
beau, received re-enforcements from France. But 
this only increased the terrible losses of France. 

The veteran victors of many European battles 
failed to conquer these West Indian negroes. 

When, in 1803, war again came between France 
and England, the few French troops that had not 
perished were shut up in Cape F'rangois by the 
negroes by land and by a British fleet by sea. 
They capitulated to the negro leader Dessalines, 
and were carried away by a British squadron. 

Capital had been destroyed, labor demoralized, 
the people embittered and prevented from learn- 
ing how to govern themselves ; and a bad les- 
son in politics given them by this ill-starred 
expedition. 

But to Bonaparte it was little more than the 
ridding himself of some persons in the French 
army who were not friendly to his personal ag- 
grandizement, and the loss of so much of military 
resources. 

The abolition of the slave trade had been agi- 
tated at every recent session of the British Par- 
liament. The cruel death of Toussaint made a 
deep impression in England. The fate of this 
heroic black man was ever deplored. 



The world's greatest conflict. 249 

Dessalines became governor. A massacre of 
whites followed. In 1804, imitating- the example 
of Napoleon, he proclaimed himself Emperor of 
Hayti, under the title of James the First. He 
published a new constitution, May 20, 1805. Soon 
after he was killed in an insurrection. 

Christophe succeeded Dessalines, and was de- 
clared President of Hayti. He opened the ports 
to the commerce of neutrals. 

The mulatto Petion led a rebellion. After a 
bloody civil war, the island became two states ; 
St. Domingo, where Christophe, as King Henry 
the First, held style military and pompous, and 
Hayti, where President Petion preserved repub- 
lican forms. Bloody wars raged between them. 



LXXVII. 

THE slavish senate bowed so completely be- 
fore Bonaparte, that it resolved, August 
30, 1802, that it was not legal to assemble except 
at the summons of the Consuls.* 
France rapidly retrograded. The 

courts of law took the old forms. France in 1802. 

Old official costumes reappeared in 

the red dress of the councilors. Bonaparte's 

court was the center of brilliant tinselry and 

intrigue. 

* Schlosser, Vol. II, p. 332. 



250 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

National lands, national property and domains 
were lavished in new gifts by Bonaparte to please 
his favorites, to bribe the indifferent, and to gratify 
the greed of the Bonaparte family and their de- 
pendents. France and Germany were extensively 
robbed for this purpose. 

October 10, 1802, fourteen anti-Bonaparte de- 
partments were deprived of legal rights, by a 
decree of the Senate, which suspended trial by 
jury for two years, and organized summary tri- 
bunals. August 3, 1804, a new decree added two 
years more. The pretext was disturbances of 
order. 

On December 31, 1802, the Christian calendar 
was restored. 

The illiberal Jesuits who at different times had 
been expelled for offenses from most of the coun- 
tries of Europe, even from Catholic Spain, Italy 
and Portugal, and were then generally accounted 
public and private offenders, alike by Protestants 
and Catholics, were now in high favor with ladies 
and with old nobles who were becoming numerous 
at Bonaparte's court. Bonaparte favored, although 
he disliked them. They might aid his despotism. 

The beginning of peace (i 801-2) was an era of 
good feeling between the French and English. 
Thousands of the English visited France. It was 
then in the power of the two governments, by 
acting in harmony, to make peace and prosperity 
perpetual. 



THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 25 1 

The continuous aggressions of France on other 
nations in 1802, alarmed Great Britain, who with- 
held the surrender of Malta which she had prom- 
ised in the treaty of Amiens of March. 

Bonaparte was irritated. He continued his 
Italian, Swiss, German and Dutch schemes of ad- 
vantage. He acted from the bad idea that a 
nation may do anything not forbidden by treaty. 

To please the Czar Paul, while he lived, Bona- 
parte ruled Piedmont as a separate state, but, 
April 9, 1802, he ranked it as a military division 
of France, in six departments. In September he 
definitely annexed it to France. 

Ferdinand, Duke of Parma, died, and Bonaparte 
immediately took possession of Parma, which he 
held by the treaty of March 21, 1801, with bad 
Charles the Fourth of Spain. 

He required the kings of Naples and Sardinia 
to give him Elba, which he annexed to France. 
This was a base robbery. 

In Holland no act of the government had valid- 
ity without the sanction of Bonaparte, and it was 
obliged to take into its pay a body of French 
troops. 

Bonaparte sent a French army to again occupy 
Switzerland (October 21, 1802). 

Each of these bad acts roused great displeasure 
in England. None of them had any justice in 
their favor. The English press severely criticised 
Bonaparte's interference. The French official 



252 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

Moniteur replied. The newspaper war became 
very bitter. Bonaparte could not comprehend the 
existence of an independent British press. Every- 
where else in Europe governments restricted the 
press. Even Republican America had tried to 
restrain it by the ''Alien and Sedition" laws of 
the Federalists, which America had just repu- 
diated. Wherever the press was free — in America 
and Great Britain only — it was very violent, per- 
sonal, vituperative, in that peculiarly uncivil, jarring 
generation, the hating period of modern history. 

Bonaparte was accused of sending to England 
military men and engineers, accredited as com- 
mercial agents, but who really were spies instructed 
to report plans of the English ports, soundings, 
depths of water and best winds with which to 
enter them. England promptly dismissed them. 

This sly attempt to obtain information danger- 
ous to England, made a bad impression. England 
was indignant. The press was vehement. The 
personal character of Bonaparte, certainly very 
vulnerable, was severely treated. Bonaparte was 
furious. He exhibited his rage. The English 
were again convinced that he hated them. He re- 
plied in the official Moniteur, angry and violent. 
Inflaming hostile rejoinders still further scorched 
out of men's hearts the sentiments of mutual amity 
and common civility. The two great nations were 
undignified ; actually scolding each other ! It re- 
quired great genius to match Bonaparte as a scold. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 253 

Bonaparte remonstrated with the British minis- 
try. The emigres, in their secure retreat in Eng- 
land, pubUshed many stinging criticisms against 
Bonaparte. He complained. He ordered the 
French Envoy, M. Otto, to state in an official note 
these grievances in substance : 

(i.) The existence of a deep and continued sys- 
tem through the press to injure the character of 
the French First Consul, and to prejudice the 
effects of his measures. 

(2.) Permission to a part of the princes of 
Bourbon and their adherents to remain in England, 
for the purpose (it was alleged) that they might 
hatch and encourage schemes against the life and 
government of the First Consul. 

He demanded that the British stop this griev- 
ance, dismiss from the country the culpable emi- 
gres, and non-juror French bishops, send Cadoudal 
to Canada, and advise the princes to join their 
head at Warsaw. He reminded the British min- 
istry that their Alien act gave full power to ex- 
clude any foreigners at pleasure. 

The British reply shrewdly reminded Bonaparte 
that, while the British ministry did not control the 
British press, and was not responsible for its free 
acts, yet the Moniteur, which abused England, was 
the official organ of the French Government. If 
any press article is libelous in England the publisher 
is answerable ; he can be prosecuted in the regular 
courts of justice. 



254 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 

It is a glory of Great Britain that its press can- 
not be reached by any arbitrary act of personal 
power of the Government. 

The British ministry did not believe that schemes 
against the French Government existed there. 
They declined to expel the emigres, bishops and 
princes. 

A suit was brought against Peltier, a French 
refugee who had been specially active, for malicious 
and libelous publication against Bonaparte. This 
was an important trial ; it attracted great attention. 

But it soon appeared that not Peltier only, but 
Bonaparte's government also, his oppressions, his 
violence to liberty, his great greed, his exactions, 
his ambitions, his cruelties were on trial before the 
great tribunal of the public opinion of mankind. 

The able lawyer, James Mackintosh, who de- 
fended Peltier, argued that the rights of mankind 
were on trial against their great abuser and de- 
stroyer, the despoiler of Italy, Germany, Holland 
and Switzerland. 

He examined Bonaparte's measures ; he defended 
the freedom of the press ; he made so comprehen- 
sive and powerful an argument and criticism as 
extremely chagrined Bonaparte and delighted his 
many enemies all over Europe. This speech, ex- 
tensively circulated, was read in many lands. The 
trial had redounded against Bonaparte. 

The jury found Peltier guilty.* 

* Peltier was never sentenced. He was released after war began. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 255 

A part of the British fleet mutinied at Bantry 
Bay. Six of the ringleaders were hanged. 

Sandhurst school was established to train boys 
for army officers. 



LXXVIII. 

BONAPARTE revived an old Jacobin law 
which forbade small vessels within four 
leagues of France, and seized some British ves- 
sels. Some driven there by storm did not receive 
common hospitality by exemption. 

Both governments used sharp causes of the 
words. Bonaparte insisted on the war. 1803. 
Amiens treaty pledges. George had 
agreed to leave Egypt and yield up Malta ; yet he 
refused, with complaints of French annexation of 
Piedmont and Genoa, and aggressions in Holland 
and Switzerland. He demanded that the conti- 
nent be as it was when the treaty was made. Pitt 
said that French increase of power had impaired 
the treaty. Bonaparte might use Egypt for pur- 
poses hostile to British India. 

Malta is between France and Egypt. With 
its navy, more powerful than other navies, Eng- 
land could blockade Malta and defend the route 
to Egypt. George ought to have kept the treaty 
pledges. 

The Moniteur published the report of Sebas- 



256 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

tiani, who described the British, Turkish and 
Mameluke armies in Egypt, and said that six 
thousand French would be sufficient for its con- 
quest. He had examined fortifications and had 
exhorted the Zanteans to look to France for 
protection. 

Alarmed and offended, George saw in this a 
threat against British power in India through 
Egypt. France explained that Sebastiani's re- 
port was purely commercial, its publication being 
provoked as rejoinder to a ''book full of atrocious 
calumnies against the French army," meaning 
Wilson's History of the Egyptian Expedition, 
which had been accepted and its author flattered 
by George and his brother. 

A showy display of the power of France was 
officially published February 23, 1803. It summed 
up that " England, single handed, is unable to cope 
with France." Bourrienne says it was ''merely 
an assurance to France." But George, Addington 
and Adviser Pitt, forgetting that the British glory 
in the freedom of the press, took it as defiance. 
The ministry unwisely declared that it would 
enter into no further discussion about Malta till 
it received the most ample satisfaction for this 
" singular aggression." 

On March 8, a royal message to the British 
Parliament represented that "considerable military 
preparations" were going on in the ports of France 
and Holland, and that King George believed 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 2$"/ 

it his duty to adopt new measures of precaution. 
''Tiie preparations are, it is true, officially in- 
tended for colonial expeditions." There existed 
important differences of sentiment between the 
two governments. 

Bourrienne says, *' the first grievance com- 
plained of by England was the prohibition of 
English merchandise, which had been more rigid 
since peace than during the war."* '* She was 
alarmed at the aspect of our internal prosperity, 
and the impulse given to our manufactures." f 
Bonaparte had refused a commercial treaty. 

George the Third's hostile message was known 
to Bonaparte when, five days later, he excitedly ad- 
dressed Lord Whitworth, the British embassador, 
in presence of the entire diplomatic corps : "You 
have news from London. So you wish for war } " 

" No," replied Whitworth, ** we know too well 
the advantages of peace." 

Bonaparte continued, "We have already made 
war for ten years ; you wish to make it for an- 
other ten years ; you force it on me." 

Then he turned to the Russian and Spanish 
embassadors and said: "The English wish for 
war ; if they are the first to draw the sword, I will 
not be the first to sheathe it. They will not evacu- 
ate Malta. Since there is no respect for treaties, 
it is necessary to cover them with a black pall." 

He then returned to Whitworth and continued : 

* Bourrienne, Vol. IL p. 82-84. t By protection. 



258 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

" How is it that they have dared to say that 
France is arming ? I have not a single ship of 
the line in my ports. You want to fight. I will 
fight also. France may be destroyed, but intimi- 
dated, never." 

" We desire neither the one nor the other. We 
only aspire to live on a good understanding with 
France," was the appropriate reply of Whitworth. 

*' Then treaties must be respected. Woe to those 
who do not respect treaties," said Bonaparte. * 

Twenty-three days before (February 18) Bona- 
parte had violently, and with his characteristic 
lack of diplomatic skill, reproached Lord Whit- 
worth with England's enmity towards him, and 
had used the expression, that Egypt " was not 
worth the chance of war. Sooner or later Egypt 
will belong to France, either by the dissolution of 
the Turkish empire or by some arrangement with 
the Porte." 

The British Government took great umbrage at 
these remarks. Their excited fancy stretched 
them to what plainly they were not, a threat to 
seize Egypt, 

April 26, 1803, the British ministry gave in its 
ultimatum : 

(i.) England to retain Malta for ten years, and 
then resign it to its inhabitants as an independent 
island. 

* This conversation is mentioned as extraordinary 'by many writers. It is, 
however, a single instance of this habit of scolding in which Bonaparte indulged 
even on his trivial household occasions. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 259 

(2.) Naples to cede Lampedusa to Great 
Britain.* 

(3.) The French army to quit the Batavian 
Republic (Holland) and Switzerland. 

(4.) Indemnity for the King of Sardinia. 

(5.) On these conditions Great Britain would 
recognize the Cisalpine (Italian) Republic and the 
kingdom of Etruria (Tuscany). 

The French minister, Talleyrand, replied that 
France would acquiesce in a transfer of Malta to 
Austria, Russia or Prussia, and would open nego- 
tiations for the adjustment of every disputed point 
unconnected with the recent treaty, f George's 
ministry refused this offer. 

Talleyrand then suggested that Malta should be 
ceded in perpetuity to Great Britain in return for 
a proper equivalent to France. J 

England's demand, useless to herself and ag- 
gressive to Italy, that the meritless " king " of 
Sardinia be '' compensated " in Italy, was badly 
grounded. He had less right to compensation 
than millions of other men conscripted from 
occupations, their own personal property, the pro- 
duct of their own toil and merit. No one can 
possibly own, as his personal property, any 
right to rule, or any public office or employment ; 
these all belong to the aggregate people. All, 

* Lampedusa is a small island, still uninhabited, about midway between 
Malta and Africa. 

t Coote, Vol. L p. 42 (British). t Alison, Vol. IL p. 270 (English). 



26o THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 

therefore, that this so-called king of Sardinia 
could have lost was not his own property or 
right ; it was the property and right of the people 
of Sardinia to bestow or use as they might see fit. 
And that people had no need or desire to employ 
him in any capacity. So there was nothing to 
redress, nothing to be compensated. 

Further, the real king of Sardinia, Charles 
Emmanuel the Fourth, had, in 1798, renounced all 
power, commanded his subjects to obey the pro- 
visional government to be established by the 
French, had retired to the island of Sardinia which 
alone he governed till 1802, when he had abdica- 
ted, and, soon after, died. There was no real 
king of '* Sardinia " * in 1803. Victor Emmanuel, 
brother of the late king, was only 2. pretender. He 
had never reigned there. There was nothing 
for which to consider him. That part of George 
the Third's demand was, therefore, both absurd 
and wicked ; a wish to impose upon the people 
a king they did not want and never had. 

This worthless pretender, Victor Emmanuel, 
forced on Italy by the allies in 18 14, himself 
proved a tyrant, restored hated abuses, increased 
taxes, persecuted Vaudois Christians and Jews ; 
this man, so thoroughly un-British in his character 
and policy, was yet put forward, and his usurpation 
asked, and his refusal made one of the main pre- 
texts, not only for the British War, but for the 

* Savoy and Piedmont. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 261 

bloody coalition of Britain, Russia, Sweden and 
Austria, against France ; it was the pretext that 
resulted in Trafalgar, Ulm and Austerlitz in 1805, 
and for the war of 1806, so severely disastrous to 
Prussia ; and for twelve years devastating war 
continued, with but twelve months' intermission. 
These nations might well have dropped his 
worthless cause ; they had ample cause against 
Bonaparte, without degrading the great struggle 
by effort to force this unworthy adventurer on 
unwilling Piedmont. Still these terms offered by 
England were better for France than war, and the 
terms offered by France were better for England 
than George the Third could hope to obtain by war. 



LXXIX. 

THERE were two men, who, by acting with 
a manly courtesy, and a wise statesman- 
ship, could have prevented the bloody war that, for 
more than twelve years longer, was to devastate 
Europe, scourge mankind, crush 
hundreds of thousands of honest Badness of 

• - 1 1 1 1 r 11 11 Bonaparte and 

men mto bloody orraves, and fill all « , 

f ° ' , George the 

Europe with cripples, and with the Third, 

hopeless mourning of widows, or- 
phans and bereaved parents. These two men 
placed in position to bless mankind, deliberately 
became its scourge. 



262 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 

Immeasurable human happiness was sacrificed, 
and wholesale, indescribable misery to vast num- 
bers of human beings was caused by the stubborn 
will-passion of Napoleon Bonaparte and George 
the Third. 

At the combined invitation of these two bad men, 
misery came, and it ruined the fairest prospects, 
and blasted the hopes of human happiness. 

The French historian Lanfrey says of Bona- 
parte : '^ In contempt of the will of the nation 
that hungered for the benefits of peace, and in 
order to avenge his miserable affront, millions of 
men were to fight for more than ten years, to tear 
each other to pieces, to die all kinds of deaths, on 
all continents, on all seas, at every hour of day and 
night, in deserts, on mountains, in snows, in flam- 
ing cities, in obscurest villages, from the Tagus to 
the Neva, from the Baltic to the Gulf of Tarant." 
'' And this war he began to force England to vio- 
late hospitality to proscribed men." * 

When the Amiens treaty was signed, and for 
months before, George the Third had full notice 
that Bonaparte was aggressive in Italy, Switzerland 
and Holland. He knew that Bonaparte had refused 
to treat with him on these subjects. He knew that 
France controlled those three countries. He well 
knew that Bonaparte never relinquished any item 
of his power. All the change in the situation that 
had occurred could have been foreseen. Great 

*Lanfrey's History of Napoleon, Vol. II. p. 282. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 263 

Britain had been very liberal, even generous, in the 
terms of the treaty. Plainly George repented of 
the bargain. He wished to withhold a part of the 
liberal price that Britain had contracted to pay. 

Malta was not worth to England the cost of one 
month of war, even though bloodless. Nearly all 
the advantages offered by possession of Malta 
could, by either party, have been found elsewhere. 
The British did not need two Gibraltars in the 
Mediterranean. 

George the Third in 1799 had, with unmannerly 
rudeness, repulsed Consul Bonaparte's peace over- 
tures and prolonged a war, entirely fruitless of 
further advantage to the British, on the bare pre- 
text that he could not trust the French Consul to 
keep treaties ! 

Now George had contradicted himself by mak- 
ing the treaty of Amiens and by proposing ulti- 
matum with that same Consul, thus acknowledging 
how wrong he was in 1799. 

How could Bonaparte now trust George in a new 
treaty while George refused to keep one so 
recent } 

Bonaparte had skillfully put the burden of 
breaking the peace upon George. 

The George the Third government was not, like 
that of to-day, representative of a nation of almost 
universal intelligence. Few nations have in this 
nineteenth century made progress equal to that of 
Great Britain. In 1803 ^^^^ a single free public 



264 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

school for common children existed in England. 
Many men could not read. Every half-sheet copy 
of a newspaper was stamp taxed 46., equal to 8d. 
now (sixteen cents). The seats in the House of 
Commons were owned by a few persons, and were 
bought and sold like merchandise. The British 
people were not represented. 

But few of the British people knew that King 
George was of natural abilities below the average 
Englishman. Few knew that in superb stupidity 
he was solid as lead. 

Bonaparte was usually a bad diplomatist,* rude 
and insulting in manner, indelicate in expression, 
arbitrary and overbearing in his demands. 

He broke everything that stood in his way. He 
pledged himself to French liberty ; he utterly de- 
stroyed it. He invoked the Christian religion ; he 
ruthlessly broke all its most sacred principles. 
He boasted of his honor ; he was the champion 
falsifier of the world. He pretended generosity ; 
he was the most egregiously selfish man of the age. 
He promised protection to the Dutch ; he pro- 
voked their repeated pillage by his enemies ; he 
immensely robbed them himself. He professed 
friendship for Charles the Fourth and Spain, yet 
he swindled them (for it was a swindle) out of Louis- 
iana. He called France a republic ; yet his gov- 
ernment was actually almost unlimited monarchy. 
He governed in the name of " the Republic " ; he 

* Bourrienne. Lanfrey. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 265 

traded German free cities to princes. He pro- 
fessed to be the defender of liberty ; he was the 
man-stealer who re-established slavery in the 
French West Indies. He expected England to 
trust him ; at that very moment he revealed his 
hope of obtaining Egypt, which would be a constant 
menace to British East India trade and empire. 

Had the two governments willed it, the world 
must then have secured a long and profound peace, 
with great progress and improvements. One had 
overwhelming power on the seas, the other was 
dominant in Continental Europe. 

Europe was alarmed by Bonaparte's willful, ex- 
acting temper, over-ready to quarrel, to seize any 
undue advantage offered by the distress of any 
nation to convert the rights, property or liberty of 
men into spoil, to be traded in diplomacy or gam- 
bled for on the card-table of war. His character 
was known in Europe as afterwards described 
by his close observer, Madame Remusat, who saw 
him often. 

*' Although very remarkable for certain intel- 
lectual qualities, no man, it must be allowed, was 
ever less lofty of soul. There was no generosity, 
no true greatness in him. I have never known 
him to admire, I have never known him to com- 
prehend a fine action. He always regarded every 
indication of good feeling with suspicion. He did 
not value sincerity ; he did not hesitate to say that 
he recognized the superiority of a man by the 



266 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 

greater or less degree of cleverness with which he 
used the art of lying." * 

LXXX. 

GEORGE THE THIRD'S ministry resolved 
on war May i6, 1803. It was made, but 
never officially declared. Sir Walter Scott says : 
*' The bloody war, which succeeded 
War. the short peace of Amiens, origi- 

nated, to use the words of the satirist, 
in high words, jealousies and fears. There was no 
special or determinate cause of quarrel which could 
be removed by explanation, apology or concession." 
Another English historian says : " The alleged 
encroachments and insults were not real justifica- 
tions of hostility. The arbitrary conduct of the 
aspiring ruler of France indisputably suggested 

* Remusat, Memoirs, p. 9. 

Note. The Chancellor of the Exchequer stated the value of British produce 
and manufactures exported in 1802 at " little short of ;i^ 50,000,000." This would 
be about ,^8,000,000 more than in 1801, a year of war, while 1802 had nine months 
of peace. 

Knight states it at ;^4i, 000,000. t The government expended in 1802, besides 
sinking fund, the enormous sum of ;^ 73,441, 403, which is ;^23,ooo,ooo, or more 
than 156 per cent, of the entire value that year of Great Britain and Ireland's ex- 
ports! As but ;^6,798,i62 in exchequer bills were redeemed more than issued, 
and .^^27,550,449 were obtained on loan, thus considerably increasing the national 
debt, it is evident that George continued war expenditure in preparation for 
renewal of the war. 



t " In 1801, before the peace of Amiens, the official value of our (British) 
exports was thirty-seven millions ; in 1802, a year of uninterrupted peace, they 
had risen to forty-one millions; in 1803, when peace was broken, they fell to 
thirty-one millions," —C. Kjiighfs History of Engla7td, Vol. VII. p. 184. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 26/ 

the expediency of precaution ; but it was not so 
open and decisive as to provoke or authorize san- 
guinary extremities." 

Great Britain had but one great competitor, the 
United States, in the world's carrying trade, and 
during peace Britain had much the larger share. 
Her own trade was in every market of the world. 
Her naval force was greater than the world had 
ever before seen. 

What George expected to win by war is obscure. 
There was not a single item of his complaint 
against France that he could hope to enforce ! 
Strange war ! The two contestants could not get 
at each other ! This was certainly a remarkable 
spectacle. France '' could not cope with " Britain 
at sea ; and " England could not cope single- 
handed with France" on French land. Except 
through allies they could hardly carry on active 
hostilities. Must the war have for its end, then, 
only the expression of deadly hate .•* 

The French did not desire war. Madame 
Remusat says : " Nobody in France wanted any- 
thing but quiet, the right to free exercise of the 
intellect, the cultivation of the private virtues and 
the reparation by degrees of those losses of fortune 
common to all." 

In England war was lamentable ; it destroyed all 
hope of early relief of the heavy burden of taxes ; of 
improving the nation ; of educating the people ; of 
giving the people a representative House of Com- 



268 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 

mons ; of spreading the real Christian spirit of 
kindness and happiness. 

Within recent years France had extended her 
frontiers to the Rhine, obtained Belgium, Savoy, 
Piedmont, Genoa, seized the Valais, got control of 
Holland, Switzerland, and nearly all Italy, and 
secured the dominating influence in Spain. 

Great Britain had vastly extended her Indian 
empire, taken from the Dutch Ceylon and Guiana ; 
from Spain, Trinidad and Minorca ; and from 
France its East Indian possessions and Malta 
(which France had taken from the knights). Rus- 
sia, Austria and Prussia had increased by dividing 
Poland between them. 

Thus each of the five great powers had extended 
its dominion. 

The French army was 427,910 men,* besides a 
great number of Dutch, Swiss and Italian auxil- 
iaries and the French National Guard (militia) and 
the coast guard. 

The French revenue of 1803 was over 570,000,- 
000 francs (^110,000,000) besides the great subsidy 
forced from Spain (^13,900,000 yearly), and from 
Italy and Portugal and maintenance of French 
troops by Holland, Naples, Tuscany and Hanover. 

The British ministry called out 80,000 militia in 
March. 1 30,000 men for regular army were voted, 
and in June 40,000 more for England and 10,000 

* Report of the French War Minister, June, 1803; viz. ; 341,000 infantry, 
26,000 artillery, 46,350 cavalry, and 14,560 invalids. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 269 

for Ireland, by drafting. The ministry calculated 
that this would raise the regular army at home to 
112,000, besides "a large force" for offensive 
operations. 

50,000 seamen and marines were voted, and then 
10,000 more, and again 40,000 more. * 

Seventy-five ships of the line and 270 frigates 
and smaller vessels, and hundreds of gunboats were 
put in commission.! 

The enormous property tax of five per cent, was 
made. Other heavy imposts were laid. Yet the 
great national debt was constantly increasing. 

The expenditures for 1803 were ^59,656,983 ; 
many times the value of Malta to the British. 

Of the twelve newspapers to which Bonaparte's 
decree of 1799 had reduced the Paris press, but 
eight remained, with but eighteen thousand six 
hundred and thirty subscribers. This small num- 
ber shows how little Paris read the little news that 
Bonaparte's strict censorship permitted to be 
printed ; little but that copied from the official 
Moniteur. J 

Political discussion was denied to the people. 
The French did not know the facts. 

To make the war popular, Bonaparte required 
great numbers of the officials to get up ad- 
dresses to him. This was to affect the people. 
He stirred up the bishops to preach war. They 

* Alison, Vol. II. p. 281. t Alison; Lanfrey, Vol. II. p. 304. 

$ Bonaparte to Regnier, June 3, 1803. 



2/0 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

forgot that the doctrines of Jesus are peace and 
good-will ; they " issued pastorals in which they 
exhorted the people to arm itself for a just war." 
** Choose men of good courage and go forth to 
fight Amalek," was the slogan raised by the bishop 
of Arras.* 

To avoid extra taxes on France Bonaparte de- 
termined that other peoples should bear them. 
This would strengthen his finances, and not cause 
French outcry against taxes. Therefore he com- 
pelled the contribution treaty of June, 1803, with 
Holland. 

As part of the treaty of peace with Russia in 
1 801, Bonaparte had withdrawn his troops from 
Naples. Now he claimed a right to send them 
back as part of his war with England. 

He sent a large force and compelled the King of 
Naples to feed, clothe and pay them. He occupied 
Tarrentium, which, with its extensive fortifications 
and capacious harbor, seemed to secure to France 
all the uses to which they might have applied 
Malta, and thus practically offset the British pos- 
session of that island. 

Bonaparte had compelled recognition of himself 
as " Protector" in Switzerland. Now he required 
a new treaty. This contract, offensive and defen- 
sive, compelled Switzerland to furnish him with 
sixteen thousand soldiers besides four thousand in 
charge of supply depots, and, in case of attack on 

* R^musat. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 2^1 

French territory, eight thousand more, making in 
all twenty-eight thousand or nearly one twentieth 
of the male population.* The French Directory 
had in 1798 robbed the Swiss treasury at Berne 
of a large sum of money which Bonaparte used to 
fit out the ill-starred Egyptian expedition. Now 
Switzerland, by many disturbances, had become 
too poor to furnish material for even that expert 
practical robber to recruit his funds. 

At that time impressment, the worst form of 
servitude, existed in England. It recruited its 
navy by this high-handed tyranny. Armed bands 
seized any eligible seamen between the ages of 
eighteen and fifty-five, and carried them by force 
on board ships of war, where they were compelled 
to serve. The impressed seamen often fought the 
press gangs, and men were killed. Armed men 
boarded ships of their own nation and kidnaped 
the best men. Sometimes Napoleon used this 
same odious system. 

Privateering is a black stain on that generation 
in Europe and America. But George the Third 
went further and violated the law of nations and 
of humanity by issuing letters of marque before 
war was known to exist ! On May 20 his licensed 
pirates captured two French vessels. Many others 
were taken before notice of the war. 

Three days earlier Bonaparte had done unjustly. 
He had sent notice to General Clarke in Italy, "it 

* Lanfrej', Vol. II. p. 311. 



2/2 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

is the intention of the First Consul that a general 
embargo be laid in the ports of Tuscany." Simi- 
lar instructions were sent to French agents in 
Holland and Genoa.* The object was to seize 
British ships and cargoes in ports. 

Bonaparte cruelly ordered the arrest of all Eng- 
lish travelers in France to retaliate the seizure of 
the two French ships. George refused restitution 
and Napoleon held the English travelers as pris- 
oners of war for eleven years — till released by his 
overthrow in 1814 — a great barbarism. Romily 
(English) says : " If it had been Bonaparte's ob- 
ject to give strength to the British ministry and to 
make the war universally popular in England, he 
could not have devised a better expedient." 

George and Bonaparte had gone to war pro- 
fessedly to " save their honor," and the first war 
act of each was dishonorable ! One warred on 
defenseless vessels, the other on defenseless trav- 
elers ; both on peaceful merchants. 

Great Britain offered to respect Holland's neu- 
trality if Holland would get the French troops to 
leave her territory. But Bonaparte required of 
Holland to make with him the treaty of June, 1803. 
By this Holland was compelled to support eigh- 
teen thousand French and sixteen thousand Dutch 
troops ; to furnish Bonaparte five ships, five frig- 
ates, one hundred gunboats, two hundred flat-boats 
and several hundred transports.! This from a 

* Lanfrey, Vol. II. p. 310, t Ibid. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 273 

friendly people, who had lost their commerce by 
alliance with him ! Bonaparte promised to restore 
their colonies ; a promise that only Great Britain 
could perform. 

The luckless Dutch were the victims of both 
friends and foes. The British ministry seized 
Dutch Cape Town during the peace ! Great num- 
bers of Dutch vessels traded at that far-off port. 
George licensed privateers, little better than the 
open piracy of Algiers ; these robbed the inoffen- 
sive Dutch Cape traders, whose only fault was 
their misfortune that already a foreign enemy, 
Bonaparte, held their country by a conquest called 
an alliance. England usually hangs pirates. 



LXXXI. 

GEORGE THE THIRD of England was 
Elector of Hanover. This did not unite 
that country to England. Hanover was misgov- 
erned by George and a German min- 
ister, not in Hanover, but in England, Hanover, 
and by an oligarchy in Hanover ; and 1803. 

it was troubled by such bad charac- 
ters as the dissolute sons of George, the dukes of 
Cumberland and Cambridge.* 

George declared Hanover neutral. Bonaparte 
never lost an opportunity, right or wrong. In pure 

* Schlosser, Vol. VII. pp. 364-366. 



2/4 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

aggression, he sent General Mortier with a French 
army into Hanover, June 3, 1803. Hanover's army 
was too weak to resist. General Mortier allowed it 
to retire beyond the Elbe, on condition not to serve 
against France or its allies till duly exchanged. 
George stupidly refused to ratify this arrangement. 
Then Mortier compelled its surrender as prisoners 
of war, with nearly four hundred cannon, thirty 
thousand muskets, four thousand horses, and all 
of Hanover's military stores ; and he quartered 
the French army on that country. "Thus thirty 
thousand of our troops were lodged, fed and 
equipped at the expense of foreigners," says Lan- 
frey. Bonaparte had obtained a great amount of 
war material to use against England and her allies, 
at the expense of the stupid George who had 
placed them accessible to him and refused terms 
that might have saved them. 

The French occupied the free cities of Ham- 
burg and Bremen. Bonaparte stationed troops in 
Cuxhaven, and closed the Elbe to British com- 
merce. Fie exacted from the free towns large 
sums of money. It was robbery. 

The Hanoverians were ready for a change of 
masters. Everything was made easy for the 
French.* Every civil officer remained at his post, 
and through them, a civil commission, with the 
Hanover supreme judge at its head, governed the 
country for the French. There was nothing in it 

* Schlosser, Vol. VII. pp. 364-366. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 2/5 

to disturb the real people. It was merely the old 
game played — arbitrary ruler against despotic ruler 
— and both against the people. True, Bonaparte 
robbed them of a great sum ; but George and his re- 
lations and friends had always been exacting money. 

As soon as the French took Hanover, George 
sent British ships to blockade the Elbe and the 
Weser, and thus stupidly cut off his own patri- 
mony, Hanover, from the trade of his own British 
kingdom ! It is not easy to see any wisdom in 
that statecraft, for it injured both Great Britain 
and Hanover, and not the French. 

The King of Prussia offered if George would 
remove this blockade and open navigation of 
these rivers, that he would cause Hanover to be 
occupied by Prussian troops, that he would hold 
it for George, and in due time evacuate it. With 
surprising lack of statesmanship, George and his 
cabinet refused this offer ! And this George and 
Pitt called saving the honor of England ! 

Russia, Austria and Denmark were displeased 
with the French occupancy of Hanover. They 
exchanged angry notes with France. Thus seized 
in 1803, it remained under Bonaparte's rule until in 
18 1 3 he lost it by the result of the Russian war 
of 1812. 

The King of Prussia at first warmly seconded 
Russia in its remonstrances against French occu- 
pation and money exactions in North Germany. 
But Bonaparte hinted that possibly Hanover 



276 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

might fall to Prussia. The King of Prussia, not 
strong enough to contend with the colossal power 
of Bonaparte, remained quiet and negotiated. He 
hoped to gain by neutrality. He urged Bonaparte 
to evacuate Cuxhaven, to reopen Prussian com- 
merce. In exchange he offered to guarantee the 
good-will of Germany to P'rance. But Bonaparte, 
as usual, wanted everything. He offered to give 
George's Hanover to Prussia if, as an off-set, 
Prussia would make alliance offensive and defen- 
sive with him. Of course this offer meant sub- 
serviency. It meant war between Prussia and the 
British. Prussia declined the offer. 

In December, 1803, an agreement was concluded 
by which Bonaparte promised that Prussia should 
be consulted in all negotiations as to Hanover. 

Bonaparte's occupancy of Hanover and the free 
cities, and his robbery of them, were in shameful 
violation of the rights of neutrals. They awak- 
ened the jealousy of other nations, and made a 
great sensation. Russia sent notes of angry 
remonstrance ; Austria protested ; Prussia was 
alarmed ; Denmark assembled thirty thousand 
men to defend its territory. 

But Russia was too far off, Austria too unready, 
and Prussia wisely loved peace. So the anger of 
the North took expression in words and diplomatic 
remonstrances. 

British trade made a market for Russia's pro- 
duce. Friendship with France was of less value. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 2// 

Russia declined to join with other powers to 
guarantee Malta as neutral. The Czar of Russia 
was displeased by Bonaparte's occupation of 
Naples. Bonaparte replied that he could see no 
more reason why Russia should interfere with the 
affairs of Italy, than France should meddle with 
those of Persia. Recriminations followed. War 
was coming. Russia and Prussia agreed (May 
3-24, 1803) not to allow French troops to ap- 
proach east of Hanover. 

The Czar was willing to leave undisturbed the 
French usurpation in Switzerland if Bonaparte 
would not meddle with the Ionian Isles, then under 
Russian protection. But Bonaparte's troops in 
Ancona, Otranto and Brindisi in Italy, were too 
near Turkey, which they might aid to annoy 
Russia. 

LXXXII. 

IN the war of 1756-63, Great Britain almost 
cleared the ocean of French vessels. To trade 
with its colonies, France admitted neutral vessels, 
and thus, under neutral flags, a vast 
amount of French goods was pro- " Rule of 
tected from British cruisers. Great the War of 
Britain adopted a rule that neutrals 1756." 

have in war time no right to carry on 
a trade beween a country and its colonies, which 
the mother country prohibits in time of peace; that 



278 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

it is a shirking of the risks of war by a belligerent, 
and is unduly rewarding neutrals. 

The British, applying ''the rule of the war of 
1756," adopted when America was part of the 
British empire and an active participant in that 
war — known as the " French and Indian War" — 
and then a beneficiary of the rule, now seized 
and confiscated many American vessels carrying 
French property. In other cases British cruisers 
searched American vessels, took away the French 
goods and allowed the vessels to go free. But in 
1803, under Washington's "Jay treaty," a commis- 
sion awarded and Great Britain paid to American 
merchants about $6,000,000 for illegal captures, less 
about half that sum similarly awarded by the com- 
mission to British merchants. This award indicates 
great aggression by as well as upon Americans. 

LXXXIII. 

SPAIN is the home of a brave people. It had 
many honorable men who, in a republic or 
liberal monarchy would have been at the front of 
affairs. But heredity gave it as king the miserable 
Charles the Fourth. Godoy, the 
The affairs wickcd Quccu's favoritc, ruled over 
"Mos!^'^' Spain's ten million inhabitants with 

little respect from Europe. 
Torture, abolished in Russia in 1801, was still 
lawful in Spain, was used to extort confessions of 



THE WORLD^S GREATEST CONFLICT. 2/9 

guilt. So restricted was trade that only common 
carriers could buy and sell grain without the king's 
special license. 

In the eighteenth century Spain ranked as the 
fourth European power in territory, fifth in reve- 
nue, first in extent of colonies including the 
countries richest in soil, produce and mines, with 
nearly twenty millions of people^ 

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, 
however, Spain was weak, wretched. Rich only 
in superstition, redundant only in priests and gran- 
dees. It had no good roads, no canals, very few 
manufactures. Industry or capital had little 
chance. Most land was in entailed estates of ab- 
sentee grandees, poorly tilled, badly managed. 
Its policy was restrictive. It tried to make the 
Carribbean and the Gulf of Mexico its own closed 
seas, allowed but thirty-four vessels, some of them 
small, to sail between Spain and America, and 
but four to the West Indies. Spain owned all the 
coasts of these two great seas ; all their valuable 
islands except Jamaica and Hayti. The world, 
not excepting Great Britain, submitted to this 
great claim which made closed seas of these two 
extensive natural highways for the world's trade 
and friendly intercourse ; an acquiescence repug- 
nant to the best interests of commerce and of the 
civilization of that part of the world, thus very far 
exceeding the present American claim to the Beh- 
ring Sea seal harvest. Its American colonies re- 



28o THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 

quired British goods ; as Spain had none, they 
were sent to Cadiz and re-shipped in these Span- 
ish vessels. 

The national debt (1800) was ^215,737,000.* 

So imbecile was the king that in 1802, a junto, 
appointed to ascertain the Spanish revenues and 
costs of collection, knavishly presented him an old 
report, made in 1789, by Lessena, as their own, 
rightly judging that he would never discover their 
fraud. 

The Spanish are of a mixed race, dialect and 
character. Dwelling mostly in uncomfortable and 
badly furnished houses, little was needed and little 
obtained to support them in their lack of energy. 
The love of music and dancing, the use of weapons, 
intrigue and intolerance were general characteris- 
tics. Castilian is the literary language, but not 
the dialect of Andalusia, Catalonia, Valencia, the 
Balearic Isles and the Basque provinces. 

Possessing a locally varying climate, a compact 
and remarkably fine commercial location between 
the two seas, the most important for the world's 
trade, and a very diversified surface, it was once 
the most opulent kingdom of Europe. It was for 
three centuries the richest province of the Roman 
empire ; a bountiful granary, rich in gold and other 
metals, and improved with a vast system of canals, 
aqueducts and other public works, now in ruins. 

Yet throughout nearly all of the eighteenth 

* Scott. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 281 

century business there was stagnant, and easy 
squalor was preferred to labor and plenty. " Even 
the laws cast dishonor on mechanic labor." * 

Two thousand years ago Spain was far from 
being a new country. Yet the continuous occu- 
pancy of from sixty to a hundred successive gen- 
erations have not made such improvements as to 
render it in 1801 a well-tilled land. 

The population from 1500 to 1700 appears to 
have actually decreased between two and three 
millions. 

The nobility are numerous ; the lower noblesse 
generally very poor, and the beggars many. In 
i860 nearly five hundred thousand persons were 
supported in one thousand and twenty-eight char- 
itable institutions. 

Before the suppression of the monasteries in 
1836, about one fifth of the whole population were 
in the employ of the Church. It had far more 
priestcraft than prosperity. 

The treaty of St. Ildefonso of 1796 bound 
France and Spain alike in perpetuity to a stated 
amount of help by each to the other in case of 
war, "without discussion." (Article VIII.) 

In 1788 Charles the Third of Spain died. The 
heir to the throne, Prince Philip, was an imbecile. 
So he was set aside, and his brother, imbecile in 
moral sense, honor, honesty, patriotism and de- 
cency, became Charles the Fourth. Certainly it 

* Bancroft. 



282 THE WORLD*S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

was not God who sent to rule a great people, a 
man far below the average of his subjects in 
manliness. 

Louisiana, first taken as French by La Salle in 
1682, and colonized many years later, was trans- 
ferred to Spain in 1762. 

By secret treaty of March 18, 1801, bad Charles 
the Fourth embezzled from Spain the great Louis- 
iana Territory, and gave it to Bonaparte in ex- 
change for the empty title "King of Etruria" 
(Tuscany), for his son-in-law, the boy duke of 
Parma. The boy became only a puppet king, for 
Bonaparte still ruled Etruria. 

Louisiana was all that country between the Gulf 
of Mexico and British America east of the Rocky 
Mountains and west of the whole length of the 
Mississippi River, and a broad strip east of that 
river that separated United States territory from 
the Gulf. This strip extended east to the Perdido 
River. 

The Spanish officials remained there. They, 
desiring to make western Americans realize the 
advantage of secession from the United States and 
union with Spain, which they hoped would recover 
Louisiana from France, withdrew the right given 
by our Spanish treaty of 1795, for Americans to 
deposit goods at New Orleans. 

Spain still held the strip east of the Mississippi, 
and also Florida. Thus it held the outlet of all the 
navigable rivers into the Gulf. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 283 

The adjacent parts of the United States must 
have access to the sea. A union with Spain of- 
fered it. 

The denial of deposit made great commotion. 
Kentucky, alarmed, indignant, called on Congress 
for aid. The prospect was threatening. The 
West called for war with Spain (February, 1803). 

Congress responded by authorizing President 
Jefferson to prepare eighty thousand volunteers, 
and appropriated two million dollars. News of 
Charles the Sixth's foolish sale made great con- 
sternation. To fight Napoleon would be quite a 
formidable affair. He had made peace with Eng- 
land and could send an immense army to America. 

Much as Jefferson and his party admired Napo- 
leon, they did not want him for a neighbor. His 
rapacity was too dangerous. The Federalist party 
hated and dreaded him. 

Jefferson instructed our envoys to France, 
James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston, to 
try, with the two million dollars, to buy New 
Orleans and the strip along the Gulf east of the 
Mississippi. 

This was all. This would give us an outlet. It 
was not President Jefferson who bought Louisi- 
ana ; it was not Louisiana that Jefferson sought to 
obtain. 

Napoleon wanted money for the war he was about 
to begin with the British. He knew that the 
British could take Louisiana from him ; that they 



284 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

were ready to do it. He would not entertain 
Jefferson's proposal. But he offered to sell the 
whole vast territory. 

The American envoys had no authority or instruc- 
tions to buy it. They lacked time to send to Amer- 
ica and obtain them ; but their minds grasped the 
situation. They took the responsibility, they made 
the purchase. Napoleon signed the treaty of sale 
April 13, 1803 ; only eleven days before he sent 
home the British embassador. 

The price was $15,440,000, of which $11,580,000 
were paid to France in United States 6 per cent, 
bonds, cashed in Holland. The other fourth, 
$3,860,000, was to be paid by the United States to 
Americans whose ships and cargoes France had 
confiscated, and France was discharged from these 
claims. 

To Jefferson has popularly been given the credit 
of this great act of statesmanship. Is it not pri- 
marily due to Monroe and Livingston ? Jefferson 
approved it, but so did Congress and millions of 
Americans. Had Jefferson's action been awaited, 
the great opportunity must have passed. 

That Napoleon made war on England proved 
immense advantage to America ; but it was a great 
misfortune to France. 

Napoleon knew that his possession of the natural 
outlets of our Western trade would make a 
natural enemy of America. But had he retained 
Louisiana and devoted the same energy, expense 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 28$ 

and skill to its colonization and development that 
he gave to unnecessary war, it is beyond conjec- 
ture to what height of real glory and prosperity he 
might have raised France. In the feeble condition 
of Spain, he could easily have obtained Mexico, 
California, Central America and Oregon. Had 
Napoleon pursued a just, honest, really statesman- 
hke course, then all that great empire, the whole 
of North America west of the Mississippi, might 
now be French dominion and constantly adding un- 
told wealth to France. Napoleon was the first soldier 
of modern times, but was he a far-seeing statesman .? 
Jefferson, his admirer, says he was not. * 

It was to enter European war into which he was 
not forced that he threw away this grand chance 
to vastly aggrandize France, without war's waste 
of human life. The forty thousand Frenchmen 
in Leclerc's army, wasted in St. Domingo, might 
have been saved and made a grand installment of 
Louisiana colonists. 

The area of this Louisiana purchase was almost 
exactly double the whole area of France, Germany, 
Switzerland, Netherlands and Luxemburg com- 
bined, with a richer soil and capable, with proper 
cultivation, of supporting a larger population than 
double the present nearly 100,000,000 people of 
those important nations. Its extent exceeded that 
of the present Great Britain, France, Germany, 
Spain, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Holland and 

* Jefferson's Works, Vol. VI. 



286 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 

Luxemburg together, which now contain popula- 
tions exceeding 180,000,000. 

Its 576,000,000 acres was enough to have given 
a farm to every man in all Napoleon's European 
dominions. This vast, virgin empire Napoleon 
sold for about 2 j%% cents an acre. It included all 
Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, 
Kansas, Nebraska, Dakota, Montana, Idaho, In- 
dian Territory, and most of Colorado and Wyo- 
ming. New Orleans had about 8000 inhabitants. 

Its 930,928 square miles was 110,248 square 
miles; more than an eighth larger than the whole 
then United States, which contained 820,680 
square miles. 

Before he became President, Jefferson and his 
party strenuously insisted on strict construction of 
the very letter of our Constitution. But that in- 
strument did not authorize any purchase of terri- 
tory. Now Jefferson and his " Republican " party 
took more than former Federalist latitude with 
the Constitution, while the Federalist, also re- 
versing their position, cried out against the measure 
as violation of that compact. They denounced the 
purchase as likely to dissolve and divide the 
Union ; even Jefferson had fears of that result. 

The purchase was a wise act of statesmanship. 
It has really secured us from the great danger of 
having a rival nation occupying all the country 
beyond the Mississippi. 

Jefferson probably intended to have the Consti- 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 28/ 

tution amended to cover this case, but the short 
space of six months allowed for exchange of rati- 
fications precluded it. 

Federalists charged Jefferson with folly in not 
seizing that territory by force and thus saving the 
purchase money, a proposal for which they held 
that authority existed in the Constitution. 

Napoleon sold it for money to fight England, the 
very power that Spain ought to have regarded as 
its own natural ally against Napoleon. 

England so plainly saw Napoleon's great mis- 
take that it permitted English bankers, the Bar- 
ings, to offer to take the American bonds and 
make the cash payments to France. 

Twenty-two Republican and one Federalist 
senators voted the ratification and five Federalist 
senators against it. 



288 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. 



LXXXIV. 

SINCE 1801 war had existed between the 
United States and Tripoli, on account of the 
piratical depredations of Tripolitans on American 
commerce. In 1803 Commodore 
War between Preble was scnt to Tripoli with a 
the United small squadron. Captain Bainbridge 
states and with the frigate Philadelphia grounded 
Tripoli. in that harbor, and was compelled to 

1803-1805. surrender. The officers were held as 

prisoners, the crew as slaves. 
In 1804 young Lieutenant Decatur, with seventy- 
six men, by a gallant dash retook and burned 
the captured frigate. 

Jussuf had murdered his father, the Bashaw of 
Tripoli, and usurped his place. His older brother 
Hamet escaped to Egypt. There General Eaton, 
an American agent, espoused his cause, in the 
hope to force the release of the American cap- 
tives. After fifty days of march across desert, 
Eaton and Hamet arrived at Derne, where they 
found some American warships ready to assist 
them. They took Derne by assault. 

Twelve days later the Tripolitans attacked them, 
but were repulsed. June 10 another battle was 
fought, and the Tripolitans beaten. Many Tripoli- 
tans fled to the desert the next day at sight of the 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 289 

arrival of the American frigate Constitution. It 
however brought news of peace. The American 
Government had bought the release of the captives 
for sixty thousand dollars, and the relinquishment 
of its support of Hamet's claims to the throne. 

Jefferson disliked a navy ; he disapproved ex- 
pensive fortifications ; he proposed heavy cannon 
on carriages, movable to any point, some at each 
port, to be used by trained militia. 

He objected to war ships. Instead, he proposed 
gun-boats; some to be kept under sheds, some 
afloat, to be manned in emergency by seamen and 
local militia ; a few to be kept fully manned. For 
the fifteen harbors which he believed needed pro- 
tection, two hundred and fifty such gun-boats, to 
cost a million dollars. Ten years might be taken 
to complete them — twenty-five each year. 

The three already completed lacked efficiency 
and excited public amusement, but Congress ap- 
propriated sixty thousand dollars for the gun-boats. 

Jefferson wrote in 1804 that the United States 
had dropped the system of making commercial 
treaties when avoidable ; he had not renewed that 
with England, and all overtures were declined 
** because it is against our system to embarrass 
ourselves with treaties, or entangle ourselves at 
all with the affairs of Europe." 

The Constitutional amendment that the Presi- 
dent and Vice-President be separately voted for in 
the Electoral College, was adopted in 1804. 



290 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

The election gave one hundred and sixty-two 
votes for Jefferson, and fourteen for C. C. Pinck- 
ney, for President ; one hundred and sixty-two for 
George Clinton of New York, and fourteen for 
Rufus King, for Vice-President. 



LXXXV. 

SPAIN made trouble about the boundaries of 
Louisiana. The United States claimed pay 
for vessels taken by Spanish cruisers, and by 
French cruisers sailing from Spain ; 
Spain. 1804. Spain admitted her liability, but de- 
nied any for the French, 
The new government, given by the United 
States to Orleans, was eminently arbitrary. The 
President was to appoint the governor and, annu- 
ally, the thirteen members of a legislative council 
and three judges of Federal Courts, the council to 
control other courts, with jury trial. Under Spain 
the colonists had no power, and little under France. 
In 1805 the people petitioned for American 
form of government, and were given a territorial 
elective legislature. The District of Louisiana 
was made a territory, the governor and judges to 
be the legislators. A clause continued the exist- 
ing laws and regulations, until repealed, and tacitly 
confirmed slavery, already there. 

Michigan was made a territory, with Williarn 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 29I 

Hull for governor. This was the American gen- 
eral afterwards so notorious for his surrender of 
an army. 

The European war having thrown much of its 
vast and rich carrying trade into American ships, 
the southern coast was annoyed by French and 
Spanish half-pirates ; American ships in St. Do- 
mingo trade were armed ; still captures were made. 
The only other marine neutrals were Sweden, 
Denmark and the Hanse towns. Goods and 
produce were first sent to the neutral country, 
then reshipped at lucrative rates. European goods 
thus carried by neutrals were protected by 
neutrality. 

English admiralty courts began to condemn 
American vessels. Public meetings in American 
ports called to Congress for redress. Jefferson in 
his annual message again urged the gun-boat 
system. 

Miranda, an adventurer, sailed from New York 
with about two hundred volunteers to raise insur- 
rection against Spain in South America. When 
too late Jefferson caused the prosecution of two 
of his assistants. Miranda obtained some British 
assistance, landed near Caraccas, took two or 
three towns; failed to receive native support; the 
Spanish took prisoners about sixty Americans ; 
the expedition broke up at Trinidad. 

Spanish and French defeat at Trafalgar pre- 
vented sending Spanish troops to Louisiana against 



292 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

US ; Jefferson had quietly procured an appropria- 
tion of two million dollars for " extraordinary ex- 
penses of foreign intercourse," and was trying to 
buy Florida and the strip extending from it to 
Orleans, which separated the States entirely from 
the Gulf of Mexico, and in the rivers of which 
Spain was exacting toll from American commerce ; 
Spain refused to sell ; she knew that Bonaparte, 
not Spain, would receive the purchase money. 
Americans claimed to the Rio Grande ; Spain only 
admitted the American claim to a narrow strip 
west of the Mississippi ; Spanish troops crossed 
the Sabine from Texas and occupied a post on 
Red River. 

Tariff duties most affected the Atlantic States ; 
the whisky tax the West. The East was mostly 
Federalist, the West mostly Republican ; the Fed- 
eralists had the less aversion to taxes ; the Repub- 
licans were restive under internal impost. The 
whisky tax became a party measure ; the Federal- 
ists insisted that it be taxed, for both moral and 
financial reasons ; the Republicans that it be free. 
The tax was abolished by party vote. 

With the admission of Ohio as a State in 1802,* 
Congress began the system, made general in 1804, 
of giving each new State twelve hundred and 
eighty acres of land to each township of 23,040 
acres, for public schools. 

Georgia, for ^1,250,000, ceded to the United 

* Organized March, 1803, 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 293 

States all its claim to lands west of its present 
limit. This land was nearly all owned by Indians. 
In July Vice-President Aaron Burr, an unscru- 
pulous politician, killed the Federalist leader, Alex- 
ander Hamilton. Both men had great faults. No 
party was interested to defend Burr's character. 
The Federalists were eager to defend that of their 
chief. One appears in popular view as a villain, the 
other as a patriot. 

1804-7 Lewis and Clarke boldly ascended the 
Missouri twenty-six hundred miles. They then 
struck across unknown regions westward until 
they reached a great river which they traced to 
the Pacific and found it to be the Columbia, dis- 
covered by Captain Robert Gray of Salem, in 1792. 
This great exploration and Gray's discovery gave 
Oregon and Washington to the United States, 
after we obtained Spain's claim to it. 

The produce of French and Dutch colonies was 
largely shipped in American vessels to America, 
and there reshipped to Europe for greater security 
under the neutral flag. This trade was very profita- 
ble to Americans, while it gave to France her trade 
almost as in peace. The British seized some of 
these vessels on the claim that they were French 
property. General Wilkinson was sent, with several 
hundred American regulars, to oppose the Spanish. 

War with Spain was imminent, but Trafalgar re- 
stricted her power of American aggression. 

Congress passed an act to punish violations of 



294 THE world's greatest conflict, 

our neutrality, and to please France a prohibition of 
American trade with revolted French St. Domingo. 

LXXXVI. 

IMPEACHMENT of Judge Chase, although it 
failed, served to check the assumption of 
overbearing demeanor on the bench, which had 
been handed down as dignity from 
Misceiia- colonial timcs. Humphreys and Liv- 
neous. ingstone benefited America by im- 

portation from Spain of fine wool 
merinoes, and by making fine cloths. 

In literature Joel Barlow put forth a splendid 
edition of his ''Vision of Columbus." 

Lxxxvn. 

FOR five hundred dollars in cash ; increase of 
annuity to one thousand dollars ; three hun- 
dred to build a church, and one hundred for a priest, 
Governor Harrison bought from the 
American rcmuants of the Kaskaskias, all South- 
indians. em Illinois up to a line across it through 

the present Alton and Vandalia. 
In 1804 Delawares and Piankeshaws, for a small 
annuity, ceded the present Indiana south of a line 
from Vincennes to Louisville, Kentucky. 

The Sacs and Foxes, for an annuity of one 
thousand dollars worth of goods, ceded about fifty 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 295 

million acres — more than once and a half the area 
of England — on both sides of the Mississippi, 
including much of Missouri, Illinois, Iowa and 
Wisconsin. Land was of very small actual value 
until labor and skill of whites subdued, cultivated 
and made it productive. 

LXXXVIII. 

BUT three banks existed in the State of New 
York, all owned by Federalists. The 
charter of the fourth bank was a party measure 
for Republican owners, the first party 
bank in America ; a bad precedent Banks, 
soon badly abused. Charters were 
denied for two more banks, because the applicants 
were Federalists. 

LXXXIX. 

BONAPARTE showed little respect for the 
new "king of Etruria." He fortified his 
coasts with heavy batteries without notifying the 
king or even answering his com- 
plaints.* Etruria was governed prac- Spain, con- 
tically as a French department.! ti'^^ed. 

This alone would have afforded 
Spain grounds to annul its treaty contract to fur- 
nish troops and war ships to Bonaparte. 

* Schlosser. 

t Lanfrey, Vol. II. p. 309. 



296 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 

The King of Etruria died October 9, 1803, ^^d 
his ignorant, bigoted widow, Maria Louisa, a Span- 
ish woman, misgoverned as far as Bonaparte would 
permit, as regent for their son, Charles Louis, 
aged four years. 

Although the Spanish treaty required that 
peace ''was only to be made by common accord," 
and ''was not to be to the detriment of the aux- 
iliary power " (Art. XIV.), yet Bonaparte alone, 
without consulting Spain, made the treaty of 
Amiens, of March 2^, 1802, in which he sacrificed 
Spain's highly valuable Trinidad, to the great 
detriment of Spain. Again Spain had a right to 
nullify the treaty because of its violation. 

But even then Bonaparte, who had so greatly 
broken the treaty, demanded that Spain should 
fulfill its terms. He was again at war with Great 
Britain ; he called for the stipulated aid. Even 
the corrupt Godoy objected. The proposal was 
too monstrous. 

Bonaparte assembled a French army at Bayonne, 
near Spain. The Spanish Government began to 
prepare for war with France. It ordered a levy 
of one hundred thousand men. War seemed 
imminent. The Spanish army advanced toward 
France. Bonaparte threatened to invade Spain, 
He would remove Godoy. He demanded that Spain 
make war on the British or pay subsidy to France. 
The alternative offered was war with France.* 

* Bonaparte to Talleyrand, August 14, 1803. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 29/ 

Bonaparte threatened Godoy. He would de- 
nounce to Charles the Fourth Godoy's criminal 
relations with Charles's queen.* With tears of 
shame and anger, Godoy read Bonaparte's threat- 
ening letter. But, bad as he was, he refused. 
Bonaparte wrote to Charles an expose of Godoy. 
He would humiliate both. But Charles, informed 
that it was offensive, declined to open the letter. 
Charles yielded. He submitted to the insult and 
injury that Spain was to pay to France six million 
francs a month, amounting to nearly fourteen 
million dollars a year, and to compel Portugal, the 
natural friend of England, to give to Bonaparte one 
million francs a month. This was done by the 
treaty of December 19, 1803, by which Portugal 
was robbed of sixteen million francs for Bonaparte 
to use against Portugal's interests to severely dam- 
age her trade and her prosperity. 

Thus by selling Louisiana, and by using the 
highwayman's principles, force and fear, against 
Holland, Hanover, Naples, Italy, Spain and Por- 
tugal, Bonaparte obtained war funds without lay- 
ing new taxes on the French. 

* Bonaparte to Godoy. 



29S THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 



xc. 



FRANCE had now little popular sympathy in 
any country. It had lost the good-will of 
Democrats and Republicans except a party, strong 
in the American Slave States, and 
France, 1803. their near neighbors. Throughout 
the world it was dreaded as a threat- 
ening and conquering despotism. Boston and 
New York, as well as Berlin, Vienna, Cairo and 
Lisbon, were adverse in feeling toward it. 

Within a short time of Bonaparte's assumption 
of power, popular institutions had vanished. But 
the friends of liberty did not disappear ; they were 
numerous even in the French army. 

Circumstances drew into Bonaparte's train many 
sincere friends of liberty. France had many 
able, patriotic, freedom-loving persons ; they pre- 
ferred the military hero Bonaparte, to the possible 
Bourbons. 

Many army officers were opposed to the Con- 
cordat of 1802. Many civilians were opposed to 
the aggressive ambition of the military, and de- 
sired continued peace. One party wished the 
return of the elective republic ; the Vendeans 
desired the old oppressors ; yet all seemed to sup- 
port Bonaparte except conspirators and the four- 
teen suspended departments. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 299 



Many French were better than their ruler ; more 
liberal than their government, as many British 
were wiser than Britain's rulers, more just than 
Britain's laws. 

Some of Bonaparte's laws were useful, ''but his 
insatiable greed of power perverted them."* 

Then ''he affected great esteem for the priests, 
and care for their interests. Bonaparte knew how 
steadily religion supports royalty, and he hoped 
that through the priests he might get the people 
taught that catechism which we have since 
seen — in which all who did not love and 
obey the emperor were threatened with eternal 
condemnation." f 

Bonaparte raised a great conscription. He col- 
lected an immense fleet of small vessels at Bou- 
logne, to carry a great army across the Channel 
to invade England. Other fleets and war forces 
he collected in Holland and other ports of France. 
He commenced immense docks at Antwerp, which 
he hoped to make the greatest naval station of the 
continent. 

Fulton repeatedly tried to get Bonaparte to 
experiment with steam. "The First Consul 
treated Fulton as a charletan, and would not listen 
to him."$ 

His preparations were very complete. He was 
ready had chance favored. 

* R^musat, Vol. I. p. 22. t Ibid, Vol. IL p. 211. 

t Marmont, Tome IL p. 211. 



300 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

His threatened invasion united England against 
him. There the war for a time was popular. All 
England was excited, alarmed, preparing. It en- 
rolled 379,000 volunteers (militia), in addition to 
the 80,000 called out in March, and voted increase 
of its regular army to 180,000. It had 189 line 
ships, and 781 smaller war vessels. During the 
next seven years the men in the navy varied from 
100,000 to 120,000. 

Bonaparte planned to reach England by flat 
boats of light draft, built on the Gironde, the 
Loire, the Oise, the Seine, the Somme, the Scheldt, 
the Meuse, the Rhine, which were to descend these 
rivers, glide along the coasts, concentrate, and take 
on board the great army at Boulogne, cross the 
Channel, and terminate, in England, the many gen- 
erations of unchristian rivalry of these two Chris- 
tian nations. 

Bonaparte prohibited imports from England.* 

June, 1803, Bonaparte proposed that Russian 
troops should garrison Malta as long as should be 
deemed necessary ; that Lampedusa be ceded to 
Great Britain ; that Switzerland and Holland be 
evacuated by French troops ; and that the acquisi- 
tions of France in Italy be recognized by England. 
Here, certainly, was a chance for George's ministry 
to make a real effort for peace. But instead of 
trying to stop the ravages of war, they offered to 
refer to the arbitration of Alexander ; the evacua- 

* Bourrienne, Vol. II. p. 84. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 3OI 

tion of Hanover and North Germany to be part of 
the arrangement. 

Of course Bonaparte refused. Alexander was 
a party to the quarrel, he was committed against 
France. 

England had offered to recognize Etruria if Pied- 
mont were made independent. It would not 
recognize the Cisalpine and Ligurian republics.* 

While complaining of French conquest in 
Europe, England had conquered vast territories in 
Mysore. 

In Ireland, a large number of persons, led by 
Robert Emmett, on July 23, 1803, attempted a 
rebellion. Emmet was soon arrested, tried for 
treason, and executed. 

In 1803, a conspiracy to kill George the Third, 
in London, was punished by the execution of six 
humble persons. 

In 1803, Great Britain's immense preparations 
and vast expense brought it but little results, ex- 
cept that its naval superiority enabled the British 
to capture the French colonies of St. Lucia, To- 
bago, Demerara, Berbice and Esquibo. This was 
little to the regret of the planters of these sugar 
countries, who looked to England to protect them 
against their own slaves, whom events in St. 
Domingo had caused them to distrust and dread. 
It also gave them a share in that lucrative com- 
merce, which, under the British flag, they could 

* Bonaparte, Lanfrey, Vol. IL 



302 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 

conduct with greater security. French trade was 
not safe on the ocean. 

The British navy blockaded French ports, fre- 
quently harassed French ships, and bombarded 
coast towns without important result. 

Thus the first advantages of the war were 
largely in favor of the French. 

The Ionian Isles were quieted with a new con- 
stitution. 

The Czar appointed the Duke of Richelieu gov- 
ernor of Odessa ; his administration made Odessa 
a great wheat exporting port before i8 15. 

In Arabia the Wahabis defeated the Turks in 
a Mohammedan war, in several battles, took 
Mecca, the holy city ; refrained from excesses 
there, compelled praying more punctually ; dress- 
ing more plainly, and forbade smoking in public. 
One of their maxims is, "no tobacco." They 
are still the dominant people of Arabia. 

In India the Mahratta war was the beginning 
of Wellington's military career. The five Mah- 
ratta chiefs had a military force of three hundred 
thousand men. The Peishwa at Poonah was their 
nominal head. He looked to the British for pro- 
tection. Holkar and Scindia, two of the princes, 
were at war. Holkar defeated his rival, and drove 
the Peishwa himself from his capital. The Pei- 
shwa called for British aid. With them he made 
the treaty of Bassoin, December 31, 1802. Wel- 
lesley (Wellington) marched six hundred miles in 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 303 

the bad season, drove out the captors and restored 
the Peishwa to Poonah. The two, lately rival, 
princes united. The war assumed large propor- 
tions. The British General Lake defeated Scindia, 
took Delhi, and won victories at Muttra and Agra. 

Wellesley, with only about four thousand five 
hundred British, and a native force, attacked the 
Mahrattas and won a bloody and remarkable vic- 
tory at Assay e, September 23, 1803. Ninety-eight 
cannon, seven standards, all the baggage, and 
most of the ammunition of the enemy, fell into 
British hands. The Mahrattas numbered about 
fifty thousand. Several other battles and sieges 
resulted in the submission of Scindia in December, 
1803. It was a brilliant campaign of four months. 
Scindia ceded territory, became subsidiary to the 
British, and agreed to exclude all other Europeans. 
Malabar was united to the Madras Presidency. 

Robert Fulton made a small steamboat which 
he exhibited on the Seine in 1803. Symington 
built the steamboat, Charlotte Dundas, to tow ves- 
sels on the Forth and Clyde canal. It was a suc- 
cess, but its agitation washed the banks so much 
that its use was abandoned. 

Sunday-schools were founded by Robert Raikes 
in 1781. At first the teaching sometimes included 
reading, writing and arithmetic,* and teachers 
were hired. By 1800 the teaching became gra- 
tuitous. In 1803 was formed the Sunday School 

* Chambers's Cyclopsedia, Vol. XIV. p. 84. 



304 THE world's greatest conflict. 

Union, which has exercised great usefulness in 
Great Britain and America, and wherever English 
is spoken. In 1880 the United States had above 
eighty-two thousand Sunday-schools. 

In 1803, the Lyceum, London, was lighted with 
coal gas, by Winsor. That year appeared Gall's 
idea of phrenology, Malthus' Essay on Population, 
Brougham's Colonial Policy, Jane Porter's Thad- 
deus of Warsaw, Miss Edgeworth's Popular Tales, 
Oehlenschlager's (Dane) first volume of poems. 

Watt had adapted steam to fixed engines. A 
steam carriage was wanted. Richard Trevethick 
invented it. He took a patent in 1802 and ex- 
hibited it to admiring crowds in London. Soon 
after he adapted it to draw wagons on railways. 
In 1804 it drew ten tons five miles an hour on 
Merthyr-Tydvil railway. This was the first loco- 
motive. Still engineers disbelieved that an engine 
could run at speed or draw a load without cogged 
wheels and rails. Many patents sought to over- 
come this imaginary difficulty. The invention re- 
mained of little use till George Stephenson opened 
the Liverpool and Manchester railway, September 
15, 1830. 

Of George the Third, Thackeray, the Englishman, 
says : "His mother's bigotry and hatred he inherited 
with the courageous obstinacy of his race. Like 
other dull men, the king was, all his life, suspicious 
of superior people. He did not like Fox ; he did 
not like Reynolds ; he did not like Nelson, Chat- 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 305 

ham, Burke ; he was testy at the idea of all inno- 
vations, and suspicious of all innovators. He loved 
mediocrities ; Benjamin West was his favorite 
painter ; Beattie was his poet. The king lamented, 
not without pathos, in his after life, that his edu- 
cation had been neglected. He was 
a dull lad, brought up by narrow- George 
minded people. The cleverest tutors theTWrd. 
in the world could have done little, 
probably, to expand that small intellect, though 
they might have improved his tastes and taught 
his perceptions some generosity." 

Of the seven million five hundred thousand 
people in England at the time of his accession, 
probably five million were born with more natural 
ability than George possessed. Nature had sent 
into the world the man who for almost sixty years 
— from October 25, 1760, to January 29, 1820 — was 
to be king of one of the bravest and best nations 
of the earth, with less of natural capacity to be a 
wise ruler, than that of the average of his subjects. 
Either Nature or fortune had made a great mis- 
take in its man. This, too, in a generation when 
Great Britain and Ireland were prolific of great 
men. It was the age of Chatham, Fox, Wilber- 
force, Stevenson, Davy, Wellesley, Clive, Rodney, 
Cook, Anson, Adam Smith, Johnson, Goldsmith, 
Gibbon, Robertson, Fielding, Nelson, Watt, Awk- 
wright, Herschell, Hunter, Howard, Wesley, 
Raikes, Grattan, Burke, Scott and Clarkson. 



3o6 THE world's greatest conflict. 

Washington and Franklin were once his subjects. 
The stupid George was king of these great men. 
Millions of men existed as capable as George 
to be king ; not a man existed capable of filling 
the place of James Watt. 

The men who fought England's battles in that 
generation were liable to that brutal practice, now 
happily abandoned by all civilized nations, flog- 
ging. General Napier stated that, early in this 
century, he had seen from six hundred to one 
thousand lashes given by sentence of merely a 
regimental court-martial. In those days a man 
who had suffered a part of his sentence was 
brought from the hospital before his wounds were 
entirely healed, to receive the remainder. Now 
fifty lashes is the extreme penalty, and that only 
after one previous conviction of disgraceful 
offense.* Many of the men who fought Eng- 
land's naval battles had been brought into the 
service by being kidnaped by press gangs. 

George the Third, who had so many apprehen- 
sions for good government in France, supplied 
money, almost openly, to corruptly buy seats in 
Parliament, and to bribe members. 

The British people were not blamable for faults 
of their government. Seats in Parliament were 
openly offered for sale for more than forty years 
after the French Revolution of 1789, and down 
to the Reform Act of 1832. Men who bought 

* Act of Parliament, 1866. 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 307 

seats sold their votes in order to make their out- 
lay profitable. Two thirds of the members of the 
Commons were appointed by the peers or other 
persons. Almost every great nobleman had seats 
to give away or to sell. Seventy members were 
returned to places that had scarcely a voter. Old 
Sarum had two members, but not an inhabitant ; 
while the great town of Birmingham, with sixty 
thousand three hundred and twenty-two residents, 
had none ! The revenue officers, who cast their 
votes just as George's government directed them, 
returned seventy out of the total, after the union 
with Ireland, in 1801, of six hundred and fifty- 
eight members. About one hundred and sixty 
persons sent about three hundred members, and 
the remainder, three hundred and fifty-eight, 
were sent by a limited number of persons, thus 
leaving the other ten million eight hundred and 
twenty thousand British, and five million four hun- 
dred and ninety-nine thousand Irish unrepresented. 
Only about one hundred and sixty thousand men 
were electors at all. Great towns like Manchester 
and Leeds, leaders though they were and still 
are among the wealth creators and prosperity 
winners of England, had no place in the mis- 
called '* Commons." 

Thus the British and Irish people had very 
slight or no share, and little influence in their own 
government, or means of making their wishes 
felt. Yet when press gangs were busy and their 



3o8 THE world's greatest conflict. 

unfortunate victims numerous ; when the slave 
trade was lawful ; when bread could not be eaten 
until a heavy tax was first paid on it ; when the 
habeas corpus act was suspended ; when not one 
person in a hundred was an elector, still, with all 
these great oppressions, Britain had more freedom 
than any other country in Europe. Even then 
Robert Hall said : "■ We are the only people in the 
Eastern Hemisphere who are in possession of equal 
laws, and a free constitution. Freedom, driven 
away from every spot on the continent, has sought 
an asylum in a country which she always chose 
for a favorite abode." Since 1800 few nations 
have made so great progress as the British. 

Historians tell us that France was very badly 
oppressed before its revolution ; but they too 
generally omit to state the fact that most of the 
world was then hardly more favored. 

Means of public intelligence in Britain were 
oppressed in 1776, by doubling the tax of a half- 
penny on each half-sheet newspaper, to which 
another half-penny was added in the very year of 
the French Revolution — 1789 — and one penny 
and a half in 1797, making four pence in all, which 
continued till 1836-37, when it was reduced to one 
penny, and only finally abolished in 1855-56. Pro- 
secutions were rife against newspapers. The 
number of stamps issued on British newspapers 
in 1800 was sixteen million, which shows that this 
kind of intelligence bore, that year, a burden of 



THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 309 

£,266,666, about ^1,293,330, besides the paper tax 
which was not abolished till 1861. 

Free public primary schools were established in 
Scotland in 1696, but in 1801 such non-religious 
schools did not exist elsewhere except in the 
Northern United States of America. Holland 
commenced its system in 1806. 

The writ of habeas corpus is one of the chief 
safeguards of British liberty, and one of the best 
securities ever devised against tyrants. It ex- 
pressly provides that no subject can be either 
arrested, imprisoned, dispossessed of his fortune 
or deprived of his life, except by a legal sentence 
of his peers conformably to the ancient law of the 
country, and he can demand immediate trial. It 
is the basis of British security. Yet George's 
government suspended it. The bare fact that 
they suspended it indicates the strong 
opposition that existed in England wiiiiam Pitt, 
against the war. William Pitt had 
once been liberal and patriotic in his efforts to 
reform some of the great abuses of those times. 
But he changed in 1793. Macaulay says : * 

" And this man, whose name, if he had been so 
fortunate as to die in 1792, would now be associated 
with peace, with freedom, with philanthropy, with 
temperate reform, with mild and constitutional 
administration, lived to associate his name with 
arbitrary government, with harsh laws harshly 

* Life of Pitt, p. 51. 



3IO THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 

executed, with alien bills, with gagging bills, with 
suspensions of the habeas corpus act, with cruel pun- 
ishments inflicted on some political agitators, with 
unjustifiable prosecutions instituted against others, 
and with the most costly and most sanguinary 
wars of modern times. He lived to be held up to 
obloquy as the stern oppressor of England, and 
the indefatigable disturber of Europe. 

'* It was pitiable to hear him, year after year, 
proving to an admiring audience, that the wicked 
republic (France) was exhausted ; that she could 
not hold out, that her credit was gone, that her 
assignats were not worth more than the paper on 
which they were made. It was impossible that a 
man who so completely mistook the nature of the 
contest could carry on that contest successfully. 
Great as Pitt's abilities were, his military adminis- 
tration was that of a driveler." 

Let us not ignore the law eternal. The funda- 
mental design of all government is to secure the 
people and individuals from injustice either violent 
or otherwise. This is the chief object for which 
each person sacrifices some slight portion of his 
natural liberties and submits to be governed at 
all. Only for this were kings and governments in- 
stituted. When a government inflicts injustice it 
not only fails in its original purpose, but becomes 
itself a fraud, and is itself the more guilty because 
it aims a lash at its own moral source and only 
justification for existing at all. 



THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 3II 

It is wrong alike in king or revolutionary tri- 
bunal, in parliament or in mob, to disturb com- 
mon comfort or that individual liberty which may 
exist without injury to the common good ; to 
make needless restrictions, or to cause unneces- 
sary war. 

By these fundamental truths let George and 
Pitt and Bonaparte be tried. Did not they reverse 
the natural purpose of government ? Did not they 
who should always be the protectors against in- 
justice, become the inflictors of wrongs? We 
shall see. 

XCI. 

THE British navy, January, 1804, was three 
hundred and fifty-six vessels, including 
seventy-five of the line, in commission. This navy 
was not in the best condition. By 
strenuous exertion and at enormous The British 
cost the defects were made up, so that Navy in 1804. 
by December, 1804, four hundred and 
seventy-three vessels, including eighty-three of the 
line, were ready for sea, and eighty vessels were 
far advanced in building. The whole navy was 
nine hundred and seventy vessels, including one 
hundred and eighty-nine of the line. 

The only valuable British conquests in 1804, ex- 
cept in India, were a few small Dutch colonies in 
Guiana and the West Indies. 



312 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 

One hundred thousand men were that year em- 
ployed in the British navy. Two hundred and 
eighty thousand land troops, not including the 
twenty-two thousand in India that took Delhi 
and Agra, and exclusive of three hundred and 
seventy-nine thousand nine hundred and forty-five 
militia (" volunteers ") were in service. 

Thus three hundred and eighty thousand able- 
bodied men were withheld from productive labor, 
besides the militia, for a trifle of conquest. It 
caused the following show of British finance, 
1804. 

Great Britain's expenditure in 1804, on army 
and navy, was above ;£3 5,000,000, or more than 
$170,000,000, besides ;^i 1,000,000 or $53,600,000 
for retiring exchequer bills, and nearly ;£ 7, 000,000 
or $34,600,000 for ** miscellaneous " expenses, and 
;£ 14,290,772 or nearly $70,000,000 interest on the 
great debt that" George and Pitt were heaping up 
to burden Great Britain for generations. 

They also borrowed ;£6,436,ooo, or nearly 
$30,000,000 more at interest to put into the sink- 
ing fund ! * And Pitt stupidly imagined that the 
sinking fund was paying the debt ! 

Summed up, Pitt's famous Sinking Fund 
amounted to just this : For every sixty dollars that 
you can possibly borrow and spend prodigally, 
give your creditor an interest bearing note for 
one hundred dollars ; then make a small note 

* Alison, Vol. II. p. 284. 



THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 313 

against yourself at compound interest, and keep it 
in your own pocket. Continue this process indefi- 
nitely, and finally pay your whole immense debt 
with those worthless notes in your pocket ! Yet 
that scheme deceived the world ! 

Great Britain for the whole year 1804 expended 
an average of almost a million dollars a day ! And 
Great Britain obtained only a few small Dutch 
outposts, while Napoleon was unharmed. The 
maritime war of 1804, like that of 1803, was mainly 
of words. 

In 1804 the British war taxes were ;£i 5,440,000 ; 
loans, ;£ 1 0,000, 000 of English and ;£4, 500,000 and 
;£i,i5o,ooo annuity; on exchange bills ;£i4,ooo,- 
000 ; duty on pensions ;£"2, 000,000 ; on malt 
;£"75o,ooo ; lottery ;^2 50,000 ; '' consolidated fund " 
;£5,ooo,ooo, and a permanent revenue of £2^,- 
365,000 ; in all, ^79,825,000, or more than $S^Sy- 
000,000. This was equivalent to a much larger 
sum at the present time. 

And with all this vast expenditure, added to the 
immense expenses of 1803, ^280,000,000, she had 
in two years only robbed the helpless and not un- 
friendly Dutch of Surinam in 1804, and of St. 
Peter, Miquelon, Tobago, Demarara, Esquibo and 
Berbice easily taken in 1803, with trifling additions 
in 1804, all <^f which the Dutch would, probably, 
peacefully have sold to England for less than one 
cent on the dollar of this enormous expense. Yet 
they had cost already more than nineteen months 



314 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 

of war. This statement appears incredible. But 
I am not writing to display fictitious glory. I aim 
only to relate actual facts. 

These figures suggest that to make war is un- 
wise, and sometimes unpatriotic. 

The British Commons passed Mr. Wilberforce's 
Bill to abolish the slave trade, but it was thrown 
out in the Lords. 

The British and Foreign Bible Society was fully 
organized March 7, 1804. In seventy-two years 
following it issued over seventy-six millions of 
Bibles. It issued, up to 1876, one hundred and 
ninety languages. The first American Bible 
Society was formed at Philadelphia in 1808. The 
Prussian Central dates from 18 14, the Russian 
from 1813; but the Czar Nicholas suspended the 
latter in 1826.* Bible societies were forbidden in 
Austria in 181 7. 

In 1804, Schiller's greatest drama, William Tell, 
was published. Immanuel Kant, a great meta- 
physician, born April 22, 1724, died February 12, 
1804. Beranger had begun to write, but his poems 
were not successful. Reduced almost to destitution, 
he asked and received from Lucien Bonaparte em- 
ployment as editor of Annales du Musee.f Prus- 
sia's population was about nine million five hun- 
dred thousand, its revenue about thirty million 
dollars, its army two hundred thousand men.J 

* Chambers's Cyclopaedia, Vol. II. p. 521-22. 

t Ibid, Vol. II. p. 459- * Alison, p. 283. 



THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 315 

Its political leaders were Harwitz, Hardenburg 
and Baron von Stein. Its policy was, Aggrandize, 
but keep out of dangers of war. It was favorably 
inclined to France, to etiquette, to economy. 
Servia rose in arms and expelled the Janizaries, 
and became masters of their country, with Kara 
George at their head. It became almost a nation 
of soldiers. In India British troops defeated the 
Mahratta princes in two battles. In England the 
" Frugality Bank " of Tottenham was instituted 
by Priscilla Wakefield, which gave rise to savings 
banks. Immanuel Kant died, aged eighty. The 
wreck of about thirty-five British commercial ves- 
sels near Portugal, caused greater loss of life than 
any naval battle of 1804. 



CONCLUSION. 

THIS volume closes with April, 1804, at a 
time when labor was dishonored, literature 
inactive, merit and morals too little respected, 
and when rank and wealth took precedence of 
manliness. 

It was a very angry, furious generation ; a wick- 
ed period. The human race was war-mad ; human 
slavery existed in some form in almost every na- 
tion ; privateering, which is but legal piracy, was 
popular; society was just emerging from a corrupt 
age. The grand humanities which now show them- 
selves in asylums, hospitals and many similar forms 
were almost non-existent. Outside of New Eng- 
land and Scotland few public free schools existed ; 
newspapers, which usually give enlightened tone 
to the world, were restricted in Europe and filled 
with poison invectives in America and England. 
Neither the British, French nor German law sys- 
tems had yet been reformed by the efforts of such 
great men as Romilly, Tronchet and Treilhard, and 
of Savigny. It was small Denmark and not some 
great empire that, under now forgotten Bernsdorff, 
had the best administration in Europe. Germany 
was many nations ; Italy was divided, and not free, 
but was controlled by Napoleon ; Norway belonged 
to Denmark. 

316 



CONCLUSION. 317 

France was a military monarchy ; it was declared 
an empire in May, 1804. Then William Pitt came 
back again to head the British ministry. The out- 
look was unpromising. The tremendous struggle 
of the succeeding years may well be left for an- 
other volume. 

A real republic fully protects the rights and 
person and property of every person, but many 
Frenchmen mistook a republic for license to op- 
press their opponents at home and abroad, there- 
fore their Revolution failed. The same false idea 
for a time longer endangered the American re- 
pubHc. Then Great Britain had a government 
almost independent of the masses of its people. 
The king took active part in politics. In our day 
she has become almost a republic ; she has man- 
hood suffrage, the prime minister is the real head 
of active power, and the House of Commons, 
elected by the people, can control or change the 
ministry at will. 

The great impetus given by John Wesley to re- 
form in all the churches, to purer religious life, to 
better morals, was actively working, and since then 
many prejudices of society, class, race and creed 
have yielded to better Christianity. In politics, 
society, trade, in the general sentiments of the 
world is now more honesty, fairness — everywhere 
is more gentle, humane light and honor. 



INDEX. 319 



INDEX. 



Acquisitions by various nations, 268. 
Addington became Premier, March, 1801, 180, 
America adopts a Constitution, June, 1788, 115.. 
Adams becomes President, March 4, 1797, 137. 
American and British Alien and Sedition laws, 143, 144, 

Trouble with Algiers, 132. 

Banks, 119, 295. 

Census of 1791 and 1800, 121, 152. 

Condition after the Revolution, no. 

Contest for the Presidency, 1800, 150, 

Court act, 151. 

Citizen convicted of treason, 150. 

Citizen extradited and hanged, 149. 

Exports, imports, area and population, 128, 191. 

Friendship for France, 123. 

House of Representatives claim power over treaties, 136, 

Indians, 117, 133, 254. 

Indignation, 129. 

Navy, but thirteen frigates in 1800, 149. 

Neutrality, 1793, 125. 

Parties exchange positions, 286. 

Public lands, 153, 202. 

Trouble with England after 1783, 112, 121, 125, 128, 133, 147, 150. 

Trouble with France, 138, 

Trade, 125, 128, 146, 192, 267, 293, 294. 

Vessels seized by British, 129. 

War with France, 1798, 145. 

War ship insulted by British, 147. 

Whisky Rebellion, 1794, 131. 

What the two parties wanted, 152. 

What ruined the Federalist party, 143, 144, 151, 152. 
Armies, British, 268, 300. 

French, 268. 
Arabian religious war, 1803, 302. 
Assignats, French, 54. 
Austria, Joseph the Second's reforms, 31. 
Austria's gross demands of France, 63. 

Bank of U. S., 119. 

Badness of Bonaparte and George the Third, 261. 



320 



INDEX. 



Battle of French and Russians at Zurich, 107. 

Batavian Republic, 186. 

Belgium, 72, 74, 79> 97- 

Bible societies, 314- 

Boy and girl king and queen, 12. 

Bonaparte asks for peace with England, 207. 

Changes the government of France, 234, 

Cheats Turkey, 230. 
Bonaparte's conscription, 1S03, 299. 

Campaign m Egypt and Syria 103, 104, 108. 

Coup d'etat, November 9, 1799, 155. 

Government, 198, 231, 249. 

Return from Egypt, 154. 

Opportunity, 228. 

Proposal to England, 300. 

Oppression of Spain, 297. 

Prepares to invade England, 1803, 299. 

Rejects Fulton's steam projects, 299. 

Restores slavery, 233. 

Scolds a British ambassador, 257. 

States his grievances by England, 253. 

Makes pohtics of schools, 222. 

Forms a gunboat fleet, 190. 

Schools, 220. 
Bread scarcity and riots in England, 171, 180, 185, 209. 

" " " " " 20, 49, 52, 54, 78, 86. 

Brittany opposes Louis the Sixteenth, 41. 
British army, 268, 312. 

Navy, 219, 268, 300, 311, 312. 

Commerce and costs of war, 230, 312. 

Expedition to Egypt, 185. 

Ministries, 179. 

Money, 189. 

Newspapers, 254, 256, 264. 

Press gangs, 172. 

Trade, 267. 

Ultimatum, 238. 

Union with Ireland, in 1801, 176. 

Small gains by war in 1803-4, 301, 3ii> 313* 

Parliament, 306. 
Brunswick (German, Duke of), proclaims fierce war, 66. 
Burr kills Hamilton in 1804, 293. 

Calamity of Copenhagen, 183. 

Calonne became minister, October, 1784 : his policy, 28, 35, 37. 

Campaign of 1800 in Italy and Germany, 210. 



INDEX. 321 



Catholic insurrection, 60. 

Christianity abolished, November 10, 1793, 81. 

Clergy (French) exempt from tax, make a loan, 41. 

Join Third Estate, 48 ; made free of the Pope, 54. 

Elective: oath: oppose Protestant marriage, 22, 55. 

Non-juror, 62, 69. 
Commune, 68, 79, 80, 82, 84, 85. 
Conspiracy of Babeuf, 100. 
Committees of public and general safety, 78. 
Commerce and costs of war, 230. 
Concordat of i8or, 217. 
Condition when this century began, 164. 
Constitution (French) of 1791, 60; of 1793, 80. 

" " i79S> 88 ; of 1802, 234. 

Conscription, 1798, 105. 
Corsica democratic, 1798, 105. 
Corvee and the feudal claims, 23. 

Courts of law (French), 55, 222 ; the famous code, 223. 
Cruelty of Carrier, 82, 85. 

Dan ton 80, 83. 
Debt of the U. S., 112, 117. 
Denmark, 183, 184, 193, 276. 
Departments (French), 54. 
Directory (French), tyranny, loa 
Dumouriez escapes, 79. 

Embargo, 140, 146. 

Emmett, 301. 

England's population, increase of, 170. 

English travelers arrested by Bonaparte, 272- 

Etruria, 295. 

Fashions in 1801, 201. 

Flogging, 306. 

France in 1803, 298. 

French, bloodshed in Chamo de Mars, July 17, 1791, 59. 

Army in 1803, 268. 

Elections against the Directory, 1796-97, 100. 

Expeditions, 1795 to 1805, 104, 108, 145, 185.. 

Emigration, 56, 61, 200. 

Executions, wholesale, 84. 

Feast of Reason, 1793, 82. 

Fontenay, 78. 

Frenzy for blood, 84. 

Invasion by nobles and foreign troops, 56, 60, 62, 69. 



322 INDEX. 



French, Revenue and debts, 53. 198- 268. 
Jacobins, 63, 71, 78, 85. 
Jaffa wholesale murders, 108. 
Joli d'Fleury is Finance minister, 27, 

Geneva oppressed by Louis XVI, 30 ; Freed by France, 76. 

Genet affair, 126. 

Genoa, 99, 180, 197, 210. 

Girondists, 63,66, 71, 72, 78, 80. 

George the Third, in. 

German free cities, 236, 274. 

Germany, 177 ; rearranged, 236. 

Guillotine, 80, 83. 

Grenoble begins the active Revolution, July 17, 1788, 42. 

Habeas Corpus writ, 309. 

Hanover in 1803, war m, 273. 

Holland, 87, 186, 272. 

How Washington became the Capital, 118, 150. 

India, 302. 

Ionia, 107, 302. 

Ireland, 173. 

Italy, 90, 96, 98, loi, 106, 194, 251. 

Jay's treaty, 1795, 133. 

Jefferson abolishes formalities, 201. 

Against a navy ; his gunboats and cannon, 289. 
" treaties of commerce, 289. 

Reelected, 290. 
Judge Chase impeached, 294. 

Kentucky became a State, June i, 1792, 121. 
Nullification Resolutions of 1798, 144. 

Lafayette, 50, 51, 54, 55, 65,68. 

Legislative Assembly, October i, 1791, 61. 

L'roi est mort : — a bas I'roi, 11. 

Lewis and Clarke explore, 293. 

Liquors, British, 189. 

Louisiana, 282, 290, 292. 

Luneville, peace of, February 9, 1801, 171, 211. 

Louis the Sixteenth annuls votes of National Assembly, 47. 

Arrests duke of Orleans and others, 39, 40. 

Assembles foreign troops, 49. 

Beaten, orders nobles and clergy to join Assembly, 4? 



INDEX. 323 



Louis the Sixteenth, Brothers run away, 51. 

Character of, 14; charged with treason, 63. 

Coronation at Rheims, 22. 

Claims right to make all laws and taxes, 26. 

Compels parliament to register taxes, 37. 

Compelled to back down ; commits a fraud, 39, 

Creates a bogus law court, 40. 

Commits the crime of desertion, 57. 

Dismisses Necker, 49 ; recalled him, 51. 

Dismisses his Jacobin ministers, 64. 

Opposes aid to America, 14. 

Oppresses parliament ; extravagance, 20. 

Is mobbed ; his bread fraud, 21. 

Commits outrages and frauds, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 34, 37, 39, 41, 42. 

Puts on the red cap, July 20, 1792, 64. 

Takes the oath and breaks it, 56. 

Dethroned, tried, executed, 66, 73, 74. 
Lomenie of Brienne, the atheist archbishop, 37, 43- 

Malta, 104, 257, 263. 

Marat, 59, 70, 80. 

Maurepas and his good wife, 16. 

Marie Antoinette's fraud, 29; her guilt pronounced, 33. 

Her brother begs her to reform herself, 29 ; called, 
Madame Deficit, 39 ; Madame Veto, 62. 
Massacre of prisoners, September, 1792, 69. 
Merinoes imported, 294. 
Michigan organized as a territory, 1804, 290. 
Mirabeau, 55, 56. 

Miranda's South American expedition, 291. 
Monks refuse to free serfs, 25. 

Naples, 91, 105, 107. 

National Assembly 47, 6r. 

National Convention of September 21, 1792, 71. 

National guards formed, 50. 

Naval events of 1796, 100. 

Necker, 24, 26, 43, 49. 

Necklace affair, 32. 

Neutrals, 125, 180, 181, 276, 291. 

New Century begins, 164. 

Newspapers in 1798, 141 ; English, 308. 

Nobles join Third Estate in National Assembly, 48. 

Nobility abolished, 55. 

Notables assembled, February, 1787, 36. 

Ormesson is finance minister, 27. 



324 INDEX. 

Oregon, 293. 

Order in Council of June, 1793, 128. 

Order in Council of November, 1793, 130. 

Parliament (old French) refuses taxes, 37. 

Compelled to register them it resists, 37, 38. 
Parliament's struggle with Louis, 1787, 37 to 41. 
Parliament of Rouen resists Louis, 41. 
Parties in France, 38, 83. In America, 1789, 115, 127, 
Paris government, 52. 
Peace of Basle, April 15, 1795, 87. 
Peace of Leoben, April 18, 1797, 97. 
Peace of Luneville, February 9, 1801, 171, 211. 
Pitt's absurd offer of peace, 100. 
Pitt resigns, 1801, 178; his policy 220, 309, 
Pitt's fallacious sinking fund, 312. 
Peace of Amiens, March 27, 1802, 225. 
Peltier's trial, 254. 
The Pope a prisoner, loi. 
Populations, 170, 191. 
Press gangs, 172, 271. 
Privateering, 271. 
Prussia, 314. 
Protestants, 22, 39. 

Queberon massacre, 87. 

Revolution, 1771, 20; 1787, 40. 

Revolt at Grenoble, July 17, 1788, began it, 42. 

Revolt of August 28, 1788, at Paris, 43. 

Revolution in July, 1789, 49. 

"Rights of Man," 52. 

Religious murders, 64. 

Riot of July 20, 1792, at the Tuileries, 64. 

Reign of Terror, August 10, 1792, to October 26, 1795, 67, 71. 

Revolutionary tribunal, 69. 

Royalty abolished, September 21, 1792, 71. 

Religious war,'78, 81. 

Robespierre 80, 83, 85. 

Riot of May 31, 1793, 79. 

Revolts of April i and May 20, 1795, 85, 86. 

" Revolt of the Sections," 88. 

Religion in 1801, 203. 

Russia, 181, 182, 183, 276. 

" States" at Grenoble, July 17, 1788, 42. 



INDEX. 325 



States-General decreed August 8, 1788, 42. 

Met May 4, 1789, 44. 
Swiss Guards, 67. 
Savoy annexed to France, 72, 75. 
Switzerland invaded by the French, 103. 
Sardinia, 92. ^ 

Spain ; its colonies ; the Tuscany fraud, 190. 
Situation in 1801, 204. 
Switzerland, 212, 271. 
St. Domingo, 240. 
Sebastiani's report, 256. 
Spain, 278, 296. 
Steam, 299, 303, 304. 
Schools, 309. 
Sunday schools, 303. 

Taxes, 23 ; whisky tax, 292. 

Tariffs (American), 112, 116, 120, 128; French, 153. 

Toulon disaster, 82. 

Turgot, 17, 23, 24. 

Valmy, September 20, 1792, 70, 75. 

Vendee, peace, February, 1795, and war again, 87. 

Venice, 97. 

Vermont became a State, March 4, 1791, 120. 

Versailles mob, 1789, 53. 

War in Belgium, 79. 

War between France and Britain, February 3, 1793, 76, 77, 86. 

War between France and Austria in Italy, 96, 107. 

War between France and America, 1798, 104, 147. 

War between France, king of Savoy and Piedmont, 1798, 105. 

War between France and Russia, 107. 

Washington elected President, 115; reelected, 124. 

Makes farewell address, 1796, 138. 

Became Lieut.-General, 147 ; died, 148. 

War's results, 220. 
What glory Bonaparte could have acquired in peace, 228. 
War coming again ; its causes, 251 ; comes, May 1804, 266, 
War between the United States and Barbary states, 288. 
Whisky tax contest, the tax abolished, 292. 



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